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Elliotte Friedman speculates about Paul Coffey becoming Oilers coach

By Chris the intern

Mar 9, 2018, 20:47 ESTUpdated: Mar 9, 2018, 21:38 EST

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Elliotte Friedman dropped some bombs on his 31 Thoughts Podcast this past week by bringing up the potential for recent hire and former Oilers legend, Paul Coffey, to join the Oilers coaching staff.

Friedman is obviously a very legitimate and respected reporter in the league so this coming from him makes me all tingly inside. Twitter man @akaRCN has a good recap of the conversation below.

Tyler, The Curator

@akaRCN

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Marek: "Didn't the owner (Katz) want a coaching move during the season; wasn't it after that Dallas game?" Friedman: "Ya, there's been some rumbling about that." Marek: "Wayne Gretzky was on the roadtrip." Friedman: "There's been a rumor about that. I don't know if its true tho."

7:27 PM · Mar 9, 2018

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Friedman: "Who's making the call? Is it Katz, is it Nicholson, is it Chiarelli, is it Wayne Gretzky, is it somebody else?" Marek: "And what's Paul Coffey's role here?" Friedman: "My guess is he ends up coaching. But I don't know if thats head coach or assistant coach."

7:31 PM · Mar 9, 2018

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As we all know, Paul Coffey was hired earlier in the year after the Oilers season took a final turn for the worst. He was brought on as a skills coach to assist in practices and with special teams. Bringing on another player from the Old Boys Club was a move straight out of the Oilers playbook, and we haven’t seen any dramatic progress from the move in the short time since he was hired.

There’s been a lot of speculation on what types of moves are going to happen this summer with the Oilers. Is Chia going to be fired? Is McLellan going to be fired? Is Klefbom going to be traded? Anything can happen. Personally I would rather see Chia replaced than McLellan, but Friedman obviously thinks something different will happen.

In my mind it’s a horrific move to put him in a head coach position. He has absolutely no experience and it doesn’t make any sense at all. I suppose it wouldn’t be a terrible decision to try him as an assistant, as long as Todd remains at the top! Friedman has specified that he doesn’t know specifically where on the coaching roster he could sit, so that is still up in the air.

Do you think it’s a good idea to bring Coffey onto the bench? Let me know in the comments.