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Oil Kings Clean House
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Tyler Yaremchuk
May 28, 2018, 22:00 EDTUpdated: May 28, 2018, 16:07 EDT
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In two separate press releases, the Edmonton Oil Kings announced some major shakeups to both their hockey ops department and coaching staff.
General Manager Randy Hansch will not return to the team next year but will stay with the team until July 1st and assist with the process of finding a new management team. He will then join an unnamed NHL team as an amateur scout.
Head Coach Steve Hamilton has been relieved of his duties after four years as the team’s bench boss. He also spent an additional four years with the organization as an assistant/associate coach. During those four years, the team won 50 games twice and captured the 2014 Memorial Cup. It was also announced that Assistant Coach Randy Marsh’s contract would not be renewed.
The decision to move on from the coaching staff does not surprise me, but the timing of it does. I’m personally not a big fan of waiting almost two months after the season ended to make a decision.
“We want to wish Steve and Ryan success in their future endeavours. Both served the Oil Kings well but we felt that it was time to retool the coaching staff,” said Oilers President of Hockey Operations and General Manager Peter Chiarelli in a press release on the team’s website.
I still believe that Steve Hamilton was a good WHL coach, and I liked a lot of what he did with the young group they have, even though they didn’t see results in the standings. I felt like he deserved a chance to see the fruits of his labour, but hockey isn’t a fair business. More often than not, the coach that is around for a rebuild doesn’t get to stick around for the next phase of things.
As for Randy Hansch, he’s been around since the team came back to Edmonton in 2007-08. He was a big part of bringing the core of players to Edmonton that delivered a 2014 Memorial Cup Championship. I’m a little surprised that he won’t be back, but it’s important to note that this isn’t a firing. He will be a part of the group that brings in his successor.
Another interesting note from today, the man who gave quotes in both of the press releases was Peter Chiarelli. Jason Gregor wrote about this a short while ago, but it’s clear that Chiarelli had a big role in these decisions with OEG’s WHL franchise.
Now the team sits with essentially no coaching staff and no General Manager, so where do they go from here? They don’t really have any internal candidates, so whoever the replacements are, will likely have to be outside hires.
The name Willie Desjardins came to mind almost immediately, but Dustin Nielson reported that the organization reached out to Desjardin, but it wasn’t a match.
Don Hay is a legend in junior hockey who he recently parted ways with the Kamloops Blazers, and reportedly wants to continue coaching. He’s coached in well over 1000 WHL games, and there’s no doubt his experience would do wonders with the next wave of young talent the Oil Kings have.
If Hay is brought in, I wonder if the Oil Kings would give him more than just the Head Coaching job.
Another name that I find interesting is Serge Lajoie. He’s spent time with the both the NAIT Ooks and most recently, the University of Alberta Golden Bears. He’s also been rumoured to be in contention for WHL Head Coaching vacancies in both Swift Current and Saskatoon.
I really like what Lajoie did at the U of A and think he’d be an excellent choice to replace Hamilton.
Other than that, there aren’t a lot of other names that jump off the page to me. It will be interesting to see what other candidates emerge in the coming weeks.
The Oil Kings have the ability to outbid any other WHL team when it comes to money and I’d hope they flex their financial muscle to find the best possible candidates to fill all three openings.

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