Report: Manny Viveiros to join Edmonton Oilers coaching staff
By baggedmilk
5 years agoAccording to Global’s Ian Duffy, the Swift Current Broncos will be holding a news conference tomorrow morning at 9AM to announce that their head coach, Manny Viveiros, will be leaving the organization to join the Edmonton Oilers coaching staff.
Late last night, Gregor broke the news that both Trent Yawney and Glen Gulutzan had deals in place to join the Oilers’ coaching staff and that there was going to be a third addition to the staff announced over the coming days. While many of us assumed that Viveiros, whose team was still playing in the Memorial Cup up until last night’s loss to the Regina Pats, was going to be the third name added into the mix, nothing was written in stone even though we’d been guessing about it for months.
Back in late April, Brownlee put his chips in on Viveiros being the third name that would be added to the coaching staff and he nailed it:
As for the name of the third candidate for McLellan’s staff, I keep looking at Swift Current Broncos’ head coach Manny Viveiros. I thought he might be a candidate to take over as the head man in Bakersfield, but if Woodcroft is slotted into that spot, I can’t see Viveiros taking an assistant’s gig in the minors. I can, however, see him considering a position as an assistant here.If things unfold as I believe they eventually will – it might be more accurate to say as I believe they should – then it’ll be Gulutzan, Yawney and Viveiros manning the bench with McLellan when the smoke clears and the dust settles.
Calling his shot a month before the announcement is pretty good, there’s no doubt about that, but Brownlee has actually been talking about Viveiros as a potential option to join the coaching staff for much longer than that. He first mentioned Manny Viveiros’ name as a potential option for the staff back in February:
Viveiros, now 52, took over from former Oiler Mark Lamb in Swift Current. He coached the Broncos to a 39-23-0-10 record last season before his team was eliminated in the second round of the playoffs. As of Thursday, Viveiros had the Broncos in the mix again, sitting second behind Moose Jaw in the East Division at 36-12-3-1.Talk to people around the WHL and they’ll tell you Viveiros is a coach who knows how to develop defencemen and somebody with a philosophy of breeding offensive confidence in his players. Hockey people will also tell you it’s only a matter of time until NHL teams looking for an AHL bench boss come calling on him – I won’t be surprised if that happens as early as this summer.
With the addition of Viveiros, the Oilers will have, more or less, a brand new coaching staff while still being able to maintain the same message. Just like the Yawney and Gulutzan additions before him, Viveiros will bring a fresh perspective on what’s going on with the Oilers while also offering a different approach to various any problem that may arise. Having this much experience behind the bench with differing views on how to handle things will be a huge asset going forward.
While we don’t necessarily know what specifically Viveiros will be doing on the staff just yet, we can assume that he will play a prominent role in helping to turn this ship around. He wouldn’t have taken the gig otherwise, right? But based on what I’ve read about him and the stories Brownlee has told, I’m thinking that the Oilers just added a cherry on top of what amounts to a very significant coaching overhaul. From where I blog, I see nothing but positives in the work the Oilers have done with their staff so far.
Now that the coaching staff is sorted and out of the way, maybe, just maybe, those boys can start to tackle what’s going on with the Gord-damned power play? Dare to dream.
What do you guys think?
VIVEIROS’ COACHING HISTORY
| Season | Team | Lge | Type | GP | W | L | T | OTL | Pct | Result |
| 2008-09 | Klagenfurt AC | Austria | Head | 54 | 38 | 12 | 0 | 4 | 0.741 | |
| 2016-17 | Swift Current Broncos | WHL | Head | 72 | 39 | 23 | 0 | 10 | 0.611 | Lost in round 2 |
| 2017-18 | Swift Current Broncos | WHL | Head | 72 | 48 | 17 | 0 | 7 | 0.715 | Won Championship |
Source: Ian Duffy, Global News Anchor, 5/24/2018 – 3:14 pm MST
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