Paul Coffey expected to return to Oilers bench next season: report
A new report seem to indicate that a familiar face will be back behind the Edmonton Oilers’ bench next season.
Joining the coaching staff last November after the firing of ex-Oilers coaches Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson, Paul Coffey is expected to do a second campaign as an assistant coach for the club.
This comes after Edmonton Sports Talk’s Tom Gazzola made a comment on this morning’s edition of The Oil Stream with Dustin Neilson (at about 1:18:00 mark).
“It does sound like he will be back behind the bench next season,” Gazzola reported.
When Coffey was initially hired as an assistant coach, he apparently had to be convinced to take the job and, frankly, did not seem too excited about it in the initial press conference announcing the move.
“I wasn’t lobbying for this job,” Coffey said at the time.
Oilers fans were skeptical as well, given the long history of this team hiring alumni in spots they aren’t completely qualified for. Yet, despite those concerns, it wound up being a match made in heaven, as Coffey stabilized the team’s defensive group and was part of the reason the Oilers were one win away from the Stanley Cup last season.
There was some concern over whether or not Coffey would stick around going into next season. The 63-year-old is getting up there in age and the rigours of being an NHL coach may not be the thing he wants at this point in his life.
If this report is true, it sounds like most of the Oilers’ coaching staff will stay the same, with Kris Knoblauch heading up a group that includes Coffey, Glen Gulutzan, and Brad Stuart.
It’s a group that got them to the Stanley Cup Final once, and it appears they’ll have another shot to do it again.
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