This was the first season for the Edmonton Oilers under coach Kris Knoblauch that they didn’t go to the Stanley Cup Final.

But a first-round playoff loss, considering the team’s expectations, and their inconsistent play all season, has many wondering whether Knoblauch will get another opportunity.

Saturday was eventful, with the key players in the organization all doing exit interviews, some like Leon Draisaitl openly saying the franchise took a step back. When asked about Knoblauch’s job security, general manager Stan Bowman said everyone, including himself, were going to be evaluated.

At the end of Knoblauch’s 20-plus minute media availability, he was asked about whether he’s considered about his job.

Before the season began, the Oilers extended Knoblauch for three years, taking to him to the 2028-29 season, but Bowman’s words were not a ringing endorsement, either.

If Knoblauch does return, he’ll get the chance to reflect on what went right and what went wrong.

He admitted this was a trying, frustrating season, where the Oilers as a group couldn’t find their “mojo.” The 2024-25 season he believed was similar, but the team found a way to playoff success, and Knoblauch was optimistic they could again.

With this season over, he was asked about the areas that he thought he could’ve done better at in retrospect.

Knoblauch was originally hired by Ken Holland in 2023-24, and helped flip a disastrous start to a 16-game winning streak, and eventual Game 7 against the Florida Panthers.

In the past, Knoblauch had a former head coach in Glen Gulutzan and a long time veteran in Paul Coffey to help the transition from the AHL to NHL. This year, with both gone, Knoblauch chose his own coaching staff, hiring Paul McFarland, and keeping Mark Stuart on who’d been with the team since 2022-23.

However, at the Olympic break, sitting at a 28-22-8 record, and a disappointing long home stand, Coffey was asked to return to the bench. This decision, which seemed to come from high up in the organization, seems to strike at Knoblauch’s autonomy in running the bench.

Coffey returned to running the blueline, while the penalty kill remained part of Stuart’s primary responsibilities.

After being asked whether he needs a former head coach as an assistant, or to hire another assistant in general, Knoblauch said he doesn’t think it’s a necessity. 

The penalty kill was a key area where the Oilers failed in the first round against the Ducks, going just 8-for-16. In the playoff’s last year, in spite of just a 67 per cent success rate, they were able to make the fourth round.

Of course, the year before that, they went on a historic heater and were 66-for-70 on the PK, a tremendous 94.3 per cent run.

Knoblauch said this year’s PK formation was different than a year ago, a more “straight line” system, that he says is standard across the league. He continued by saying they were prepared for what the Ducks were going to do, but Anaheim still found a way.

“I saw some meetings on the penalty kill which I thought were bang on. They were informative. They were, in fact, predicted what Anaheim was going to do right to a tee. I saw three or four goals that we gave up that were totally prepared, totally— yeah, should have been executed, that unfortunately we gave up. So it happens. You can’t always make the plays.”

When talking about injuries, Knoblauch used as firm and negative a word as he’s ever used in a press conference to describe Edmonton’s start to the year.