Let’s travel back one year to November 12, 2023 — Following a losing road trip that saw the team fall to 3-9-1 on the season, the Oilers fired head coach Jay Woodcroft and assistant coach Dave Manson.
Though the team won Woodcroft’s final game as head coach, the decision came after the Oilers lost to the basement-dwelling San Jose Sharks a few nights earlier.
Woodcroft had led the Oilers to a 76-31-12 record along with three playoff series wins over his first year-and-a-half behind the bench but the team struggled mightily to adopt a new system he tried to implement for the 2023-24 season. With Edmonton’s season quickly slipping away, the front office decided to make a change.
The Oilers announced that Kris Knoblauch, who had been Connor McDavid’s coach when he was playing in the Ontario Hockey League, would be taking over for Woodcroft and that Hall of Famer Paul Coffey would fill into Manson’s role as defence coach.
The coaching change was met with skepticism and frustration among many fans. The organization had seen success with Woodcroft both in Edmonton and in Bakersfield and the team’s underlying numbers suggested their poor record would turn around.
Meanwhile, Knoblauch came into the role without any experience as a head coach at the NHL level and Coffey had virtually no experience coaching in general. It seemed like a hail-mary pass by new CEO Jeff Jackson with a hint of both the new-school and the old-school, bringing in somebody with a McDavid connection and one from the Old Boys Club.
It didn’t help that Jackson and Holland told different stories about who was involved in the decision when Knoblauch and Coffey were introduced to the media. From an article by the late Robin Brownlee…
“We didn’t consult with the players on this decision,” said Jackson, who sits a notch above Holland in the front office hierarchy and reports to owner Daryl Katz. “Never spoke with Connor, Leon, Nuge or Nursey or any of the other leadership group. These guys are here to play hockey. They know that’s what they want to do.
“They don’t like being involved in these types of decisions. That’s my experience. So, the fact that Kris was Connor’s coach in Erie, it only has something to do with this because I think Kris Knoblauch is a very good coach. Connor didn’t have anything to do with this decision and neither did the other leadership group.”
Holland apparently wasn’t as tight-lipped. “I talked over this past week with some of the veterans on our team. I’m not going to tell you what they said. I take the information and, ultimately, I have to make decisions. Obviously, Jeff’s got a long relationship with Connor. You can probably talk about that.”
Despite the uncertainty around the coaching change, Knoblauch brought a very interesting resume to the table and had been a popular name suggested for NHL coaching vacancies in previous years.
After five seasons playing with the University of Alberta Golden Bears, Knoblauch broke into coaching as an assistant with the Prince Albert Raiders of the WHL. He became the head coach of the Kootenay Ice in 2010-11 and led the team to a WHL Championship in his first season. Knoblauch also won the OHL Championship with the Erie Otters in 2016-17, part of a run when he became the first CHL coach to have four consecutive 50-win seasons.
That success at the Major Junior level landed Knoblauch an assistant coaching gig on Dave Hakstol’s staff with the Philadelphia Flyers. That lasted for only two years as the Flyers fired Hakstol and Knoblauch wasn’t kept around when Alain Vigneault took over. Knoblauch was then hired to be the head coach of the Hartford Wolfpack, the minor-league affiliate of the New York Rangers.
When Knoblauch arrived in Edmonton, he talked about seeing an Oilers team that needed to take a deep breath and relax.
“What I see out of him is what I see out of a lot of the team — a team that’s trying very hard, very passionate, wants to win, wants to do what’s right, but ultimately, right now, are very frustrated,” said Knoblauch.
“As a player who’s played any kind of sport, if you’re frustrated or you’re feeling down, it’s tough to perform at the highest level. Right now, I want Connor, and everyone, to just take a breath, relax, just play hockey, and find some joy in it, and play the way they can. Right now, I think there’s just too much pressure on them, and they’re feeling it.”
The Oilers allowed a goal 40 seconds into Knoblauch’s first game as head coach but battled back with four unanswered goals to beat the New York Islanders by a score of 4-1. They wound up going 46-18-5 the rest of the regular season after the coaching change, highlighted by winning streaks of eight and 16 games, and made it to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.