Oh Chia, what do you have up your sleeve? You ol’ sailor you.

Monday’s presser with the Oilers head coach made it feel like the job of Todd McLellan may be safe but, as of this posting, it hasn’t been confirmed whether or not he will be back for his third twirl around the sun at the helm.

Peter Chiarelli is apparently speaking to clear up the situation sometime in the next couple days. As we all know, he’s a wildcard in every sense of the word, so who knows what will transpire on the coaching front over the next 24-plus hours. So, let’s speculate!

Many areas the team has struggled mightily in this year — lack of secondary scoring, less-than-average goaltending, no firepower on the wings, everything about Milan Lucic — all fall squarely on the shoulders of Chiarelli and on the players he put in place. Other factors such as the team’s horrendous power play and penalty kill, a bottom five-ranked team GAA, a hesitancy to pull the trigger on in-game adjustment and questionable defensive schemes all fall on the head coach—or at least on his personnel decisions.

Is McLellan on his way out? Hell if I know. He shouldn’t be, probably, but let’s take a look at all guys who would make a horrible choice to replace him anyways. Over the last couple weeks, we took a glance at NHL options available along with the best coaching candidates outside the NHL.

This, on the other hand, is the Stay-Away-From-At-All-Costs Crew. ‘Trap’ candidates, if you will.

Alain Vigneault. Though a freshly-axed, big-name coach from big market team will usually make the short-lists of those clubs looking to fill a spot, Vigneault is far from a nice fit in Edmonton. He’s seen streaks of regular-season success throughout his 16-year coaching career with the Habs, Canucks and Rangers, but has been trending downward the last three seasons and has only managed to make the Stanley Cup final twice despite entering the postseason as division champs seven times. Beware of the big-name boobie trap.

Jack Capuano. Working with a similarly-constructed roster for much of his seven seasons behind the New York Islanders bench (swap out Connor McDavid for John Tavares) as the Oilers have today, Capuano was able to lead his group to exactly 24 whole playoff games over three postseason appearances—getting his team out of the first round once. Plus, Garth Snow hired this man at one time so that tells you a lot.

Adam Oates. The former Capitals assistant and head coach always seems to surface as a possible candidate whenever an HC job opening arises. Those rumblings have quieted the past couple seasons, however, and it’s probably because he’s so good at his other gig—an skills coach and consultant. One of the best in the world at what he does and with a clientele including superstars Mark Sheifele, Steven Stamkos and others, Oates has proven that the individual-skills coaching realm is more his forte.

Dan Bylsma. Sure, he’s got a Jack Adams award to his name, but place my frail great-aunt Marcey behind a bench that boasts the best 1-2 punch at centre of all time and she’ll rake in the accolades, too. A Stanley Cup under his belt? Indeed—after inheriting a Penguins team halfway through the 2009-09 campaign that got unsustainably hot right when he took over (finished the regular season 18-3-4) and rode that wave of sweet, sweet momentum to a championship. His most recent endeavour was taking control of the tire-fire Buffalo Sabres for two seasons and somehow leaving them in worse shape when he left than when he started.

Paul Coffey. He’s obviously a legend and by all accounts a solid individual and team skills coach. Hell, maybe he’d even be a great head coach. Hell, maybe he will be the next guy at the helm in Edmonton. But the Oilers-legends-moving-into-key-management-and-coaching-roles song and dance has been done many a time before and it just hasn’t worked out too well, tbh. Sorry, Paul, you get hosed because everyone that came before you was incompetent. It’s a cruel world.