General manager Stan Bowman would not discuss reports on Thursday morning that the Edmonton Oilers asked permission from the Vegas Golden Knights to speak to Bruce Cassidy while Kris Knoblauch was still the head coach.

Just hours before, Knoblauch and assistant coach Mark Stuart were relieved of their duties officially, two days after the initial Frank Seravalli report that the Golden Knights were withholding permission from the Oilers to speak to Cassidy.

The writing was on the wall, as both Seravalli and Dave Pagnotta had said a coaching change in Edmonton was likely.

But whether the Oilers actually asked Vegas for permission, when they first tried, or whether they acted unprofessionally with a two-day gap between the Cassidy report coming out and Knoblauch still being the head coach – that was not specifically addressed by Bowman during his media availability on Thursday.

“I’m not going to comment on media reports about other candidates – that’s not appropriate to be doing that,” said Bowman, after being pressed twice on whether the Oilers’ process was unprofessional, or treated Kris Knoblauch unfairly.

“We didn’t rush through this. We did an analysis, and like I said at the outset, Kris is a tremendous guy. I have a lot of respect for him as a person and as a coach, but we didn’t make our decision until very recently.”

Bowman highlighted that after the team’s media and internal exit interviews, there was a full assessment and review of Kris Knoblauch and the coaching staff, as well as management. He said the Oilers didn’t want to make a rash decision.

Pagnotta reported that the Oilers were frustrated with Knoblauch’s in-game tactics and how players were deployed.

“We did an evaluation of our whole operation, not just the coaching, but that was a big part of it,” said Bowman. “Talked to a lot of people to analyze what went well, what didn’t. Those things take time. I understand that people want things to happen quicker, but it takes as long as it takes. We wanted to do it justice by doing a thorough review, and that took time.”

Bowman would not go into a “behind the scenes” breakdown or timeline of events that suggests the Oilers started their head coach search early. The delay in firing Knoblauch was partly because Bowman wanted to do it face-to-face.

“I believe it’s important to meet with people in person rather than on the phone,” said Bowman. “It was more of a logistical thing that it took until late last night before Kris and I were able to actually sit down and talk it through. So that’s unfortunate, but there was certainly no disrespect.

Bowman said management takes some of the blame for how the season played out and that he won’t “hide” from it.

There’s no firm timeline of when the Oilers will have their next coach, but it will be the first public head coach search since 2019, as both Kris Knoblauch and Jay Woodcroft were installed mid-season.

Bruce Cassidy appears to be the top candidate, with the Los Angeles Kings and Toronto Maple Leafs believed to be interested. However, when teams will get formal permission to speak to the soon-to-be 61-year-old Stanley Cup-winning coach isn’t clear.