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Former Edmonton Oilers player shares hilarious story about Dallas Eakins

Colton Pankiw
Colton Pankiw
|
Nov 28 2025, 5:17 pm
Former Edmonton Oilers player shares hilarious story about Dallas Eakins
Jerome Miron/Imagn Images

It’s been a long time since Edmonton Oilers fans have thought about Dallas Eakins.

Eakins, who last served as the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks, coached the Oilers for parts of two seasons from 2013 to 2015. That was very much during the decade of darkness era, as the Oilers had a combined 36-63-14 record.

As frustrating as those times were, there have been some positives that have come from them. The biggest, of course, was that their struggles led to them getting both Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl in the draft. The other is that there have been some pretty hilarious stories shared from those who played on those lowly teams.

Yesterday, former Oilers enforcer Luke Gazdic shared an absolutely hilarious story about Eakins during the 2014-15 season. Eakins lasted just 31 games that season before being fired. Somehow, he was still able to run one practice after that 31st game, one in which the Oilers had fallen to the Anaheim Ducks by a 2-0 final.

Gazdic explained that the Oilers had the day off Sunday, and all felt that one of two things would happen Monday: they would be bag skated or Eakins would be fired. Instead, both turned out to be true.

“We get there Monday, nothing’s happening yet. No one’s saying a word at the rink,” Gazdic said on Edmonton Sports Talk. “We get out there, zero pucks. This guy put us on the line, we did what was called mountains… We did 12 mountains that day with no other drills.

“I’ll never forget. Dally’s screaming at us, he’s like, ‘You guys think I’m not going down without a fight? Again! Again!’ We got off the ice, he was already off, and he was already fired. He was done. That was it.”

Allowing for Eakins to run that practice when Oilers management had already decided to fire him speaks to the incompetence that the organization was under at the time. The one positive from that season was that the Oilers were able to win the draft lottery and select McDavid with the first-overall pick.

After being fired by the Oilers, Eakins went on to coach the San Diego Gulls of the AHL for the next four seasons, before being promoted as the head coach of the Ducks. He was fired after the 2022-23 campaign and is currently serving as the head coach and sports manager of Adler Mannheim in the DEL.

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