Initially reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Edmonton Oilers have fired Todd McLellan and replaced him with Ken Hitchcock.
Edmonton is 26th in the NHL with a record of 9-10-1 and have gone 3-7 in their last 10 games.
The Oilers tweeted confirmation of the news not long after Dreger’s report and he is expected behind the bench as the team faces San Jose tonight.
The #Oilers have named Edmonton native Ken Hitchcock as their new Head Coach after relieving Todd McLellan of his duties earlier this morning. pic.twitter.com/joNXTLMXol
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) November 20, 2018
An Edmonton-native, Hitchcock will be coming out of retirement to join the team. Dreger said his position will be re-evaluated at season’s end.
He is the eighth person to coach the team in the last decade.
He comes to Edmonton as the third-winningest coach in NHL history, while McLellan departs with a record of 123-119-24. Hitchcock was working as a consultant with the Dallas Stars, who according to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, was granted permission by the team to speak with Edmonton.
Vultures have so to speak circled McLellan for the better part of this season as his inability to extract wins out of the roster has come back to bite him. The firing comes after the Oilers blew leads against the Calgary Flames, and Vegas Golden Knights.
The 66-year old Hitchcock, who won a Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999, is well-known as one of the most respected coaches in NHL history having spent time behind the bench for the Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, the Dallas Stars and most notably, the St. Louis Blues.
The truth behind this coaching swap is that Peter Chiarelli’s leash as the Oilers general manager just became shorter. Firing a coach is often the so-called last straw for GM’s in what is often a saving grace move.
While McLellan, in my opinion, could’ve done more with what he has had in the past three years, Chiarelli has constructed a poor roster and will pay for it with his job should this team not reach the playoffs.
McLellan still had this year and next on his contract that was paying him $3-million a year.
Peter Chiarelli will address the media at 11 A.M. MST.
On Twitter: @zjlaing
The Blues had the third best points percentage from 2011-2017 with Hitch (.650, behind Pittsburgh/Chicago) and out-scored their opponents by 193 goals during that span while surrendering the second-fewest shots against and goals against. Oilers could use some of that these days.
— Scott Wheeler (@scottcwheeler) November 20, 2018
The Oilers are allowing 3.30 goals per game (tied for 24th in the League) and they're 74.2 percent on the PK (27th). Can Hitch solve these issues? Can he help Cam Talbot help the Oilers solve these issues? He has accepted a challenge.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) November 20, 2018
A couple notes on this Hitch to Edmonton thing:
– He was in an advisory role with Stars. So technically he needed Dallas permission to take this job.
– Montgomery had spoken to Hitch a handful of times this season to discuss things that happened in particular games.
— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) November 20, 2018
Hitchcock is very interesting hire. Is a stop gap more than long term answer. If things don’t improve this makes it easier to fire GM change in summer and new then GM can pick his head coach. #Oilers
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) November 20, 2018
Chiarelli sucks donkey dong. This management group is a laughing stock
Hmmm… Chia’s 1 get out of jail free card? MacT going to coach a better team now? Well maybe Hitchcock can implement a defensive system now.
Sorry…Tmac lol. It’s all the same to us down here…
Hate that the same old recipe is required before the real culprit can be relieved of his duties. I feel indifferent about TM being fired, but he wasn’t the problem, the roster is the problem.
Agreed, Hitchcock won’t change the way this season would have played out. Man it sucks being an oiler fan.
Yesterday I said there is no way anyone would be fired this year.. apparently I was very wrong
A few things….
1. This is a short term stop gap until end of season.
2. At end of season it allows management to properly search for a coach. Also allows potentially new mgmt to hire their own coach.
3. Hitch has a proven record so nobody can complain about us hiring someone unproven.
4. Hitch has a proven track record in short instances as he is known for a having a shelf life. Makes him a good short term option.
5. Hitch is a hard ass that believes in structure and discipline, something everyone can agree has been lacking as of late.
6. This is not a long term solution so lets not everyone panic, if Hitch can turn this around for this year and instill some solid work ethic in this team then maybe we can all be happy. But please lets not start complaining about Hitch out of the gate after complaining about Todd, give him a chance at least to turn this around.
7. If Hitch fails then 90% Chia is gone and everyone gets their wish.
8. This shows either Coach Q said no or ownership did not give permission to go after a big ticket coach with Todd still on the books for next year. I am leaning toward Q saying no.
This is about Chirelli trying to survive. No more no less.
Hitchcock is just Chiarelli’s temporary Bunker.
Bingo, short term move to tide over the fans and it allows some breathing room to find a suitable replacement. If the Oilers manage to turn things around, maybe Hitch comes out of retirement on a 1-year deal, but at the very least they can adequately assess the team and actually separate all the sissies from the guys who want to be here.
If they continue to do poorly, nobody in their right mind can blame Hitch, so at least the players got a half year of some piss and vinegar. Then in all likelihood Chia pete gets fired and they start rebuild 6.0…. or is it 7.0 now?
Oh wait. Is that means Tmac is given a assistant GM position? 😉
How about we give Hitch a chance and maybe support him for the remainder of the year. He is coming into a hellfire that is not for the faint of heart. I give the man huge credit for that.
I will tell you this much, if Hitch see Benning being a tire fire, he will tell Benning why he is being a tire fire and staple his ass to the bench and then put his ass in the press box to see think about it and have Benning and the coaches work on Bennings game in practice. There wont be any oh the player can figure out whats wrong, Hitch will tell you what is wrong.
So Chia confirms that Hitchcock is here for the rest of the season then it will be reevaluated. Makes a little sense to me. If I am the organization, I am not letting Chia hire a long term coach when I don’t know if he will be here next season. On the flip side, if I am a good coach, I am not taking a job where I don’t know who my boss might be in 6 months.
This team has some roster issues but at the same time, I think there are guys under performing and need a boot in the ass. The guys I think that can be a lot better are:
Lucic, Khaira, brodziak, Kassian, Benning, Nurse, Rattie, Talbot. Caggulia has been decent at times but still does stupid mistakes. I think Nuge who has been decent points wise BUT those points are with McDavid. Take him away from McDavid and he doesn’t score a lot and he has 4 goals which isn’t enough. I think Leon can be better. He looks dominate with McDavid, can look dominate at times on his own but other times, he isn’t anywhere near as good as he can be.
I do want to see what happens with Hitch and Draisaitl. Drai is an absolute monster when he’s moving his feet and has a fire lit under his ass, but has completely lazy games all over the place. Hitch doesn’t tolerate that whatsoever.
I think we’re either going to see Drai completely crash and burn this season as he clashes with the coach, or he’s going to have a career year and put up 85 points.
Goalie coach needs to go as well!!!!!
The best part about this is todd was on the plane with the team that went to San Jose….you have to be kidding me…you thought firing Kruger via Skype was bad….this organization is laughable…# browns north
Hitchcock was an assistant coach with Team Canada.
This is a Bob Nicholson hire, not a Chia one.
Are oilers going to sign ‘the great one’ out of retirement to help mcdavid on top line too? That would help.
Craig Button calls Chia “a disaster” as general manager.
Hard to argue that.
Which is rich coming from Button.
Interestingly Button made one disatrous move that cost him his job – signing Roman Turek for 19 million over 4 years (in 2001!!).
Otherwise he did a pretty good job that sutter took to the next level by getting the best goalie of his generation – Mikka Kiprusof. Paralells with Talbot perhaps??
Waived Marty St. Louis and traded Marc Savard for magic beans because Savy and Gilbert couldn’t get along. Yep, great job.
This is gold, Jerry, GOLD!
Takes one to know one.
He would now. He was one.
And he would definitely know.
Wake me up when Lowe, MacTavish and Howson are gone.
Hitchcock is a Nicholson hire and is fitting in at the end of the season at which time he will provide BN with a “forensic audit” of the team’s strengths and weaknesses and also an evaluation of the personnel prospects.
Ouch, thought being an Oilers was supposed to be easy! You should win more than you lose and win a playoff round once in a while, maybe an occasional Stanley cup! This is hard work! Somebody please help!!!🤯
How many years did Todd have left on his contract?
Are the assistant coaches also being replaced or just Todd?
Well then.
Happy to see McLellan arrive but also happy to see a meaningful change… I just wish they would have started at the top with Chiarelli as most people would question his asset management, particularly with trades and signings. This is probably the last ditch attempt at saving the season before the GM goes.
chia aint the top; there’s a whole layer of ineptitude starting with nicholson, the gretzky brothers, lowe, mact, howson, coffey, the katz regime is the job centre for the old boys
I think the old boys club is a tired and old argument.
Ok, why do they all still have jobs with the Oilers than?
What player decisions do they make? Just need some whipping boys or excuses don’t we
if they are not making or helping with decisions why are they collecting paychecks?
It will be when they are gone…
Yeah its tired and old, just like its members. However fans and first tier ticket holders deserve more. We never got to see the purge we wanted. We all wanted to see the headlines “Lowe, MacTavish, Howson, Nickolson, and others let go as Oilers clean house after years of failure, Katz starting with clean sheet as Oilers win another 1st overall pick featuring generational talent Connor McDavid”.
And they will all be retained, promoted, given tenure. This changes nothing, but they could always fire the trainers again. If there is 1 thing they do right, it is scapegoating.
Are you seriously lumping Keith Gretzky in with the others? Do you know what you are talking about? Keith made his name on his own with other organizations and has made a name as a guy who drafts extremely well. Our last draft has the makings of one of the best drafts we have had in at least a decade. I have no issue bashing Howson, Lowe, MacT, etc but Keith has proven he knows what he is doing.
There are posters on here who believe they have the inside track on everything.
this is just the oilers throwing away the rest of the season to avoid firing Chia, It seems the egos down at the oilers braintrust are putting their feelings before their salary paying fans. Oh well, we have seen old 6 rings tell us fans that we are bottom tier fans. This looks more like some people are trying to milk this team until its all dried up, Katz’ head is so far up his ass he thinks that buying retired veterans will do something.
So i’ve been hearing that team usually don’t fire GM’s during the season – i think Chia is the main problem, not Todd.
GM’s are almost never fired mid season as it is impossible to do a proper GM search in the middle of a season. Many times teams will look to assistant GM’s of other teams as replacements and no team is going to let go of their assistant GM in the middle of a season.
Wrong guy was let go! Should have been Chiarelli
i agree, but changing a GM mid season doesnt solve anything… rosters are essentially set.
True but it allows the new GM a reasonable amount of time to evaluate what he has.
And how do you propose a team do a proper GM search mid season. The only way it works is if you promote from within. I would have no issue with Keith Gretzky getting a shot, but only after interviewing all potential candidates and doing it the proper way.
Should we get the truck warmed up so we drop Petey off at the city limits, with a can tied to his butt.
This just gets better & better.
And a clown hair wig.
Wow.
Woo! Now do Chiarelli! Hire Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill
i was hoping for quenville
the two probable reasons Q wasn’t hired:
a> they didn’t want a long term commitment because they probably will be replacing PC at year’s end…
b> he turned it down…
I’m going with ‘b’…
The complete opposite of Eakins, I love it!!!
Well I didn’t think they had the guts to do it this year, good on them I guess. I wanted both gone but I think Chia needed to kick rocks at the same time or before TMac.