This morning, the Oilers officially announced Dave Tippett as the team’s new head coach, leaving both he and Holland to speak to the media about how this union came together, leaving Seattle, and how they’re going to move the franchise forward. Let’s get to the breakdown.

ON THE SEARCH FOR A NEW COACH

With the Oilers running through a seemingly endless influx of coaches since Pat Quinn was here in 2010, I’m always interested in hearing the thought process behind selecting a new coach, including how many people were on the list.
Before turning things over to Tippett, Holland spoke a little bit about how this all came together, revealing that Ken Hitchcock was involved in the search.
I wish someone would have asked more about Hitchcock’s involvement but it does make a lot of sense that the guy would have been asked to help. In terms of experience, something we know that Holland values, no one has more of it than Hitchcock and I would have appreciated a deeper look at what he did.
Ahhh man, wouldn’t it have been great to hear more about what kind of recon Hitchcock was doing? I assume he was asking for opinions related to Holland’s 15-man list, but I would have loved to know more about how that got paired down. How did they check names off? Who were the outside the box options that we may not have even heard about? Regardless of Hitchcock’s contributions, Holland seemed to have Tippett at the front of mind right from the start and all roads seemed to point in his direction.
One thing that came up often in today’s press conference was Tippett’s ability to communicate with his players and develop relationships. Considering the way the league is going, these type of skills will be invaluable and should go a long way to helping right the ship. Obviously, there will need to be a lot more that goes into fixing the Oilers than improving the communication, but I think we can all agree that being on the same page from management down to the players is a good first step.
In Detroit, Holland hired a first time coach in Jeff Blashill but noted a few times that he really wanted to have an experienced bench boss here in Edmonton.

TIPPETT COMES TO TOWN

When Dave Tippett’s name started getting thrown into the mix, some folks wondered why he would want to come to Edmonton and he touched on the ‘why’ in his opening remarks.
DAVE LOVES POUTINE AND NANAIMO BARS — CONFIRMED! What else?
One storyline that’s getting beaten to death right now is how defensive the Coyotes were when Tippett was coaching there, and I still can’t help but wonder how much of that tactic was because of the overall lack of skill he had to work with.
Go on…
Getting the most out of the available roster was a recurring theme in the presser and a skill Tippett will probably have to flex with the Oilers as well. While there was certainly talk of rebuilding the bottom six and roster in general, it’s not like the Oilers have a tonne of space to make that happen so Tippett is going to have to find a way to bring this team together quickly.

TIPPETT’S PHILOSOPHY

So what makes Tippett tick? Consistency is key.
Communication came up a few times in the press conference and it was interesting to hear Tippett talk about whether or not that was something he’s worked on or always had as part of his repertoire.
Knowing that most people see Dave Tippett as a defensive-minded coach, I was happy to hear a few questions about how he views himself and what he wants this team to play.
As Tippett was talking about five-man units and defencemen jumping up into the rush, I couldn’t help but think about how the current players will fit into that philosophy. Do the Oilers have enough mobility on the back end to truly make this work? Does that mean some changes are coming?
I’m not saying I disagree, Dave, I really don’t, but I’ve also watched this team for a long time and wonder how the current top-six is going to execute on this plan. That said, I do like the idea of watching the Oilers play more aggressively on the forecheck if he can make it happen with this roster.
Speaking of his roster, Tippett was asked specifically about Connor and Leon and how he expects to deploy the team’s two best players.
Together, eh? Mmmmmmm yes. I do love me some McDrai.
As President and CEO of the Ryan Nugent-Hopkins fan club, you have to think that keeping Connor and Leon together basically eliminates any chance of Nuge getting traded this summer, right? RIGHT!? Sorry, I guess I’ve still got my Chiarelli-induced guard up. Either way, this team won’t succeed if they have only three guys that can consistently score and Tippett basically said as much when asked about potential changes.
As I wrote on Sunday, four players accounted for 61% of the team’s goals and that is simply not good enough.
Amen, Dave. Amen.

ANALYTICS

In this market, the use of analytics has always been a hot-button issue and it’s been that way for years. Some fans and bloggers believe strongly that analytics should be an integral part of the team’s analysis while others feel that the eye test is much more important. When asked about analytics, Tippett made his feelings obvious.
If we all quiet down and listen carefully, you can hear the pants of thousands of spreadsheet boys tightening slightly. Does everyone hear it? Seriously, though, I really do believe that the Oilers need to build a management team with varying opinions and areas of expertise to help them make the best possible decisions and a competent analytics department should certainly be included in that. Clearly, Tippett feels the same way.
Tippett went on to talk about how he kept spreadsheets on players dating back to the 90s and I have to admit that I loved hearing it. Again, I don’t necessarily believe that fancy stats are the be-all and end-all in terms of player evaluation, but it is nice to know that the coach will be using these numbers as a tool to confirm what his eyes are telling him.
Looking at the current roster, there are a number of players that have some pretty ugly fancies tied to their names and I can’t help but wonder if that will make a difference in terms of who stays and who goes. Am I overthinking things again? Probably.

THE ASSISTANT COACHES

With the Oilers still having three assistant coaches under contract, I was curious to hear from Tippett on whether anyone would stay or go.
As for Holland, he seems to be on board with whatever his new coach wants to do.

THE WRAP…

Since we all knew that Dave Tippett was coming to town for the past few weeks, I was more interested in seeing what he would actually say about the job. Yeah, I was expecting the usual canned responses and cliches but I was really wanting to hear him talk about what he plans on doing with this group going forward. For a lot of Oilers fans, I think that Tippett’s time in Arizona has almost put him in a box because of the style of play he deployed, but I can’t help but think that a big reason for that was the lack of overall skill he had to work with. How will that approach change here in Edmonton now that he has McDavid, Draisaitl, and Nugent-Hopkins to throw over the boards?
Obviously, we’re going to have to wait and see what actually happens and it’s going to be a long five months to wait before we’re able to do that, but I’ll readily admit that Tippett’s press conference had me feeling cautiously optimistic. I know we’ve all felt excited about changes before but I really want to believe that this time is different. I really want to believe that Holland and Tippett can and will make the necessary changes needed to actually move this ship forward, and I’m excited to see how the rest of the summer will play out. What did you guys think?