When Kris Knoblauch became the coach of the Edmonton Oilers in November of 2023, he came to a team with a well-established set of tactical strategies.

The team had been running with Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson for a couple of seasons, so it didn’t make much sense to make large-scale changes to how the team approached the game. Certainly, there were some tweaks along the way, but changing systems in the middle of a season is not a practical idea.

Fortunately, and unfortunately, Knoblauch didn’t get much of a chance to implement anything new long into the off-season. Of course, we know that’s because the Oilers went to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals this past June, and so the system change would have to come over the summer and get worked into the pre-season for the team.

While some people don’t like the length of the pre-season, I can assure you that coaches don’t mind it. It allows them to set habits on system play for a large group of players in the organization. Kris Knoblauch is no different.

Did the pre-season give us any clues about what the tactics for the Edmonton Oilers look like? Let’s go to the tape.

Before we take a look at what the Edmonton Oilers may look like tactically, let’s look at how last season’s team played.

The Oilers ran a fairly straightforward offensive zone forecheck. F1 attacks the puck aggressively. F2 reads off where F2 is pushing the puck and attempts to intercept. F3 stays nice and high in the zone to await any plays coming through the middle of the ice. Here is a nice clip from last spring on how it works.

You see a very nice rotation of players filling those three roles in the forward position. The defence holds the line until the play comes up the wall. At that time, the D1 will step down hard on the pinch. D2 skates to the middle of the ice to protect, and F3 replaces D1. This system is quite common, and the Oilers typically run it quite well.

The Oilers’ neutral zone forecheck has changed significantly over the past couple of seasons. The team ran a 1-2-2 and then a 1-1-3, only to return to a 1-2-2. Under Knoblauch last season, the team stuck to a 1-2-2 neutral zone. Simply put, F1 would pressure the puck as F2 and F3 took up positions in the neutral inside the dots. D1 and D2 would take up similar positions one zone back. F1 would force the puck in one direction. F2 would step up to try and create a turnover. D1 would move up the wall to seal the entry. F3 and D2 would move to the middle of the ice to protect a change of sides pass by the attacking team. The goal is either to turn the puck over in the neutral zone or force a dump-in that leads to a transition breakout. Here is a good illustration.

This was an excellent result in terms of defending and you get a great example of how really good tactics can lead to goals even 100 feet away from the opposition net.

Like the neutral zone, the Oilers’ defensive zone has seen numerous changes over the past couple of years. There have been both man-to-man schemes, zone schemes and hybrid schemes. With Knoblauch, last season was much more passive. The set-up is essentially a box with the two defencemen down low on either side of the post. The two wingers sit at the top of the circles inside the dots. The centre sits in the middle of the box. As the puck rotates, so does the box. If the puck is down low in the corner, the nearest defence will go out to attack. The center will drop down to replace the defence. The weak side of the box moves to the middle of the ice, with the weak side winger dropping down into the slot. When the puck goes to the net, the entire box collapses down low to the net front.

Watch this example here with a focus on how Connor McDavid, the centre operates.

Here is another excellent example with Dylan Holloway and Leon Draisaitl switching to perfection.

Jay Woodcroft is no longer coaching the Edmonton Oilers partly because of the penalty kill. For all of his great coaching, he struggled in the penalty kill. When Knoblauch took over, he let Mark Stuart take the reins and work on it. The results were spectacular, and it was one of the reasons the Oilers went on a tremendous regular and post-season run. What the Oilers ran was essentially a triangle plus one.

The triangle is the two defenders working off either post and one forward sitting in the slot. The other forward would put pressure on the puck unless it were at the very top of the zone. The key to this is the rotation of the forwards. The forward who is in the slot needs to be protected from seam passes, but when the puck gets moved away from his forward partner, he must rotate out into that pressure role. The other forward now must race to the slot. The defence stays very passive unless the puck is bobbled or the attacker is facing away from him on the wall.

We don’t need to dwell on the history very much. The powerplay has not changed in years. It has Bouchard as the quarterback and Nugent-Hopkins as the trigger player, of which most plays work, especially on entry. Hyman sits on the net front. McDavid and Draisaitl are free to roam, looking for seam passes or 2v1s down on the side of the net. It is brilliant, creative, and fun to watch.

With the advent of an entire off-season, Knoblauch and his staff got to work on any changes to the tactical systems. The pre-season gave us some clues that changes were happening.

The offensive zone looks pretty similar. Nothing changed in terms of structure. It does appear to be a tad more aggressive. We need to be careful here because it is the pre-season, but the Oilers looked a little harder on the puck when it was below the goal line. They kept their F3 in a nice spot and had good transitions, but they seemed more keen on the forecheck. It’s a bit more Florida Panthers style.

Here is a clip that I think shows this element. McDavid chases hard on the puck and then Hyman moves quickly down low for the check. Finally, Troy Stetcher rotates down really quickly as well. This appears to be more aggressive.

Whether that holds in the regular season or not, only time will tell, but there appears to be at least a modest change in the mindset of the forecheck if not the tactics.

The forecheck look this year is more of a hybrid. When the opposition has the puck low in its zone in control, the Oilers play a conventional 1-2-2. Again, the Oilers appear slightly more aggressive on the check. The F2 and F3 are pushed up the ice more towards the opposition blue line. The goal here is to create turnovers before the opposition can move up the ice. D1 and D2 are also up the ice, looking for those loose pucks. Here is a clip that shows how aggressive F2 and F3 are on the check.

Now, the Oilers get more conservative when the opposition is a little further up the zone with the puck. This is the hybrid piece of their play. This usually comes off a quick turnover at the opposition blueline or a failed dump-in. The Oilers still have F1 up the ice, but watch F2 and F3 get back into their side of centre ice. Combined with D1 and D2, they form a tight box on their own side of centre ice.

Think of the Vegas Golden Knights and how they play the neutral zone. The idea here is to prevent quick counters by clogging up the middle hoping to force a dump-in. Have a look at this play as an example.

So, it looks like the Oilers will run a bit of a hybrid this season: a 1-2-2 when the puck is deep in the opposition zone and a 1-4 when the puck is up the ice a bit more.

What I am certain of is the Oilers want to force dump-ins on either version because they are really changing their retrieval tactics this season. This should come as no surprise to those who have watched Kris Knoblauch in the past. He loves to do two things when the puck is retrieved off a dump-in: changing sides with the puck and activating the defence. Watch this clip from his days in the AHL with Hartford.

Here is another one where the centre gets low, and when struggles with the puck, his defenceman gives him a great outlet option on the weak side.

This style of play has happened all pre-season for the Oilers. Here are a couple of clips to watch.

This one is Darnell Nurse. It starts with a wonderful retrieval play by Ty Emberson, who uses his body very well to shield the forecheck. The puck swings far side, and now the Oilers are going. Nurse steps up immediately to create another passing option, and the Oilers escape the forecheck.

Here is another one involving Emberson off a great set play. I think Emberson has a chance to do very well in Edmonton because he played with Knoblauch and knows his assignments.

Watch this lovely set play with Nurse.

You can see the tactical shift here by the coaching staff. They have set up their neutral zone in hopes of creating dump-ins. When that happens, the Oilers want to activate their defence quickly up the weak side and look to change the side of play as they move up the ice. This will be an area to watch all season.

The defensive zone for the Oilers is much more structured this year. That should not be confused with the word passive, as it’s simply more disciplined. It is the same box plus one, but there is much less chase going on unless there is a loose puck or the puck carrier has his back to the play. Here is a great example.

Notice the defence holds their spots, and the centre works the pressure. The wingers are lower in the zone, and I suspect that will be an emphasis all year. The idea is to protect against slot chances. Look for the group to collapse to the goalie when the puck gets to the crease, making it hard to create clean opportunities. I’m anxious to watch this part of the game this year because it has a chance to be much better despite losing a couple of important defencemen from last season. The key will be how well the group maintains its composure.

There’s absolutely no change to the penalty kill year over year. Nor should there be. The only question will be the defensive pairings. Who plays and what roles? Obviously, Nurse and Ekholm will play and I do expect Evan Bouchard to play far more this year on the penalty kill, and he should be fine. After that, seeing Ty Emberson and Troy Stetcher and how they perform will be interesting.

Again, there was no reason to change the attack of the first powerplay unit as it’s pretty effective, but the Oilers may have added a bit of a new layer for this season with more emphasis on the bumper play. The idea is to station a player in the high slot who can distribute the puck to the wings or take a quick shot. The challenge for the penalty kill is the defence is likely dealing with net-front players, so they don’t really want to leave their position. However, if they don’t, the bumper can get into a very high-danger scoring area.

We have seen some of this with Draisaitl in the past and it looks like this clip here.

The Oilers employed it a lot this preseason, the most notable for me being Ryan Nugent-Hopkins. He’s a brilliant passer of the puck and has a very good shot — a quick, accurate release. However, Nugest-Hopkins has spent a lot of time working on the powerplay’s left flank. This year, he has been seen in a bumper role more. Watch this play here where he intentionally goes to this spot.

That puck movement was stunning to watch. I think the goal is to get McDavid and Draisaitl on the flanks. This might mean that McDavid is ready to shoot more this season after struggling with injury last season. I could also see a scenario where McDavid comes up top, and Bouchard moves to the right flank to use his shot.

Now, this may be a look that happens only infrequently, but it is a new addition to an already dynamic powerplay.

The Oilers have made some subtle changes to their structures from last season. They were smart not to overhaul, given how well the tactics worked last year. However, given the opposition, new looks are never a bad thing. The Oilers look to be set on being more disciplined in the defensive zone, more aggressive in the neutral zone and on retrievals, and a little more aggressive on the forecheck in the offensive zone.

Let’s watch the first ten games and see whether these changes are still there and how it has worked out for the Oilers.