According to our own Jason Gregor, the Edmonton Oilers have parted ways with assistant coaches Trent Yawney and Manny Viveiros.

The Oilers’ summer shuffled continued this morning as news came out that the team would be parting ways with two of their three assistant coaches. We all knew that Dave Tippett would bring in his own staff when he was hired, but we didn’t know how that would affect the three remaining assistants that were left over from the McLellan days. As we’ve heard many times over the past few weeks, Trent Yawney is expected to join Todd McLellan in Los Angeles so I expect that move to be announced soon, but I honestly thought that Manny Viveiros had a chance of sticking around. Either way, both guys won’t be coming back for the 2019-20 season and that will continue the overall reshaping of the organization that started when Holland was brought in earlier this month.

What we don’t know yet is what will happen with Glen Gulutzan. After asking around and texting Gregor to try and get a scoop, it seems like Gulutzan might be the one that sticks around. At this point, no one is 100% sure what will happen with the former Flames bench boss, but it does appear that he will be the lone remaining coach from this past season. Given his experience and established relationships with the players, it makes sense to bring at least one guy back to try and bridge the knowledge gap. I think of a guy like Nuge that will be going on his 6000th coach and what that must be like, so having any kind of familiarity and stability can only help speed up Tippett’s program. Will Gulutzan be that guy? I guess we’ll find out.

For now, the Oilers’ summer of change continues as two more people that were involved in last year’s lost season will be swapped out for new pieces. From where I blog, today’s news isn’t exactly surprising but it does bring us another step closer to finding out who the next assistant coaches will be, so we’ll have to wait and see how things play out in the coming weeks. If I were a betting man, I’d guess that we’ll see a Jim Playfair and Mark Lamb announcement in the coming days, but what the hell do I know.

As a positive note, Gregor also revealed that Jay Woodcroft would be remaining with the Bakersfield Condors. When Todd McLellan signed in LA, there was plenty of talk about whether or not Woodcroft would rejoin in on the bench, and I’m happy to see that this is not the case. To me, he had an excellent head coaching debut with the Condors and it almost would have been a shame to step away from that just to resume his old post. For the Bakersfield Condors, having Woodcroft back will provide continuity for a young team that desperately needs consistency. All in all, this is good news for the organization.