Monday night’s Stanley Cup Final rematch against the Florida Panthers was the 100th game of Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch’s NHL career.
Though the team wasn’t able to secure a win, Knoblauch still boasts the best record through 100 games in Oilers history at 64-29-7. Jay Woodcroft has the second-most wins among Edmonton coaches through 100 games with 59, followed by Dave Tippett at 55, and Craig MacTavish at 50.
Only four coaches in NHL history have won more games through their first 100 than Knoblauch. Todd McLellan won 65 games with the San Jose Sharks between 2008-09 and 2009-10, Mike Keenan won 69 games with the Flyers in 1984-85 and 1985-86, and Armand “Bep” Guidolin won 70 games with the Boston Bruins in 1972-73 and 1973-74. Guidolin coached the WHA Oilers in 1976-77 and posted a 25-36-2 record in his lone season with the club.
Hall of Famer Tom Johnson, who won the Norris Trophy in 1958-59, holds the NHL record for most wins through 100 games. He went 57-14-7 in 1970-71 with the Bruins and led Boston to the Stanley Cup in 1971-72 after going 54-13-11. The Bruins fired Johnson in 1972-73 with a 31-16-5 record and he never coached again.
The Oilers hired Knoblauch one month into the 2023-24 season. The team struggled to a 3-9-1 record when Woodcroft tried to implement new systems following their loss in the playoffs to the Vegas Golden Knights the previous spring. They went 46-18-5 the rest of the regular season, highlighted by a 16-game winning streak that came one shy of matching the NHL record for consecutive wins, and then reached the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in 18 years.
The native of Imperial, Saskatchewan joined the Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL as an assistant coach after spending five seasons playing with the University of Alberta Golden Bears. He won a WHL Championship with the Kootenay Ice in his first season as a head coach in 2010-11 and led the Erie Otters to an OHL Championship in 2016-17.
The Philadelphia Flyers brought Knoblauch on as an assistant for the 2017-18 season but he was let go after 2018-19 when the team brought in Alain Vigneault to replace Dave Hakstol as head coach. He was hired by the New York Rangers to coach their AHL affiliate, the Hartford Wolf Pack, ahead of the 2019-20 season and stayed in that role until joining the Oilers in 2023-24.
It was a long road to the NHL for Knoblauch and that experience in the WHL, CHL, and AHL has ultimately resulted in him never looking like a rookie behind the bench with the Oilers. His calm demeanour and ability to push the right buttons at the right times have resulted in one of the best starts to a coaching career the league has ever seen.
