Former Oilers head coach heading to Germany for new job
A former Edmonton Oilers head coach is hopping across the Atlantic Ocean for his next job in hockey.
It was announced on Monday morning that Dallas Eakins had been hired to be the coach and GM of Adler Mannheim, a team in the German DEL league. This will be his first time coaching an overseas team and also his first time acting as the GM of a professional hockey team.
Dallas Eakins is heading to Germany to become head coach and general manager of Adler Mannheim. https://t.co/sCThyLd959
— Chris Johnston (@reporterchris) November 27, 2023
Eakins coached the Oilers for just over a season from 2013 to 2014. During that time, the team had a miserable 36-63-14 record through 113 games before getting fired. After spending the next four seasons coaching the San Diego Gulls of the AHL, he was then named the head coach for the Anaheim Ducks in 2019.
Once again, he struggled to turn the team into a winner, and after four seasons behind the bench, the Ducks decided not to renew Eakins’ contract after last season. He did spend some time helping out Sportsnet as an analyst during their 2023 playoff coverage.
Outside of turning some heads with a generous Halloween display, things have been fairly quiet on the Eakins front ever since. He came into the NHL with a lot of hype back in 2013 but has failed to get winning results from both his stints in Edmonton and Anaheim.
His record coaching in the AHL is another story, as he holds a 311-239-34 in the minor leagues. Eakins nearly won an AHL championship with the Toronto Marlies before being hired by the Oilers, losing in the finals to the Norfolk Admirals.
Logic would dictate that Eakins’ style may work well in lower leagues and translate poorly at the NHL level. If that is the case, it makes sense that Adler Mannheim decided to take a swing.
The team has had a bit of a middling start to the DEL season, sitting in eighth place with a 9-8-3-2 record through the first 22 games of the season.
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