Oilers and head coach Kris Knoblauch reportedly agree to multi-year contract extension

According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Oilers have signed head coach Kris Knoblauch to a multi-year contract extension. Edmonton’s bench boss was entering the final season of his previous deal in 2025-26.

This signing comes a few days after TSN’s Ryan Rishaug reported that general manager Stan Bowman was working with Koblauch on a new contract and that the process was expected to go smoothly.

Given the team’s success over the past couple of years, an extension comes as no surprise.

Through two seasons as an NHL head coach, Knbolauch owns a 94-47-10 regular-season record and two Clarence S. Campbell Bowls. His .656 points percentage ranks first in franchise history and fourth in league history among coaches with at least 82 games. Knoblauch was also the first head coach since Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman to reach the Stanley Cup Final in his first two seasons in the NHL. Bowman led the St. Louis Blues to the Cup Final in their first three years as an NHL club in 1968, 1969, and 1970.

The Oilers hired Knobluach one month into the 2023-24 season following a disastrous start. The team had a 3-9-1 record when Jay Woodcroft was let go in early November, and they went 46-18-5 the rest of the way, highlighted by a franchise-record 16-game winning streak that spanned over late December and all of January. In the playoffs, Edmonton reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time since 2006, falling to the Florida Panthers in seven games.

The 2024-25 season didn’t have the same extended winning streaks as the previous year, but Knoblauch led the Oilers to a 48-29-5 record before the team plowed through the Western Conference side of the playoff bracket in just 16 games. Edmonton again matched up against Florida in the Cup Final, this time with home-ice advantage, but the Panthers topped the Oilers in six games for their second championship.

Signing Knoblauch is also an important aspect of showing captain Connor McDavid that there’s long-term organizational stability in Edmonton. Since being selected as the first choice in the 2015 draft, McDavid has played for Todd McLellan, Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett, Woodcroft, and Knoblauch, with his former Erie Otters coach being the only one to guide the Oilers to any playoff success.