Should the Edmonton Oilers consider making a coaching change?
Things are getting tense around the Edmonton Oilers.
With 21 games left in their regular season schedule, the Oilers do not have a solid footing in a playoff spot and have sputtered to a 1-4-0 record over their past five games. Edmonton now sits third in the Pacific Division, with the wildcard Seattle Kraken just one point behind them.
The San Jose Sharks sit outside of the playoffs, just a measly five points behind the Oilers. There is a reasonable risk that Edmonton falls out of the playoffs if things don’t change quickly, but could that lead them down the road of firing yet another head coach?
Pressure to win is at an all-time high in the Alberta capital. McDavid signing a short-term deal before the season ramped up the urgency, and the Oilers cannot afford to waste a year sitting outside of the playoffs.
There has already been a shuffle behind the bench with the addition of Paul Coffey over the Olympic break, and head coach Kris Knoblauch should be feeling the heat.
Making a coaching change this late into the season is not an unprecedented move. The LA Kings did so over the weekend, letting go of Jim Hiller after a poor stretch after the break. With how disappointing the Oilers have shown thus far, it wouldn’t be out of the question for Edmonton to do the same.
Knoblauch has done numerous questionable things with this roster over the course of the past few seasons. It’s true that he’s helped the team to two straight Stanley Cup Finals, but his strategy seems to be growing stale with this group.
He has had an unwillingness to trust younger forwards up in the lineup, limiting players like Matthew Savoie and Ike Howard to low minutes and bottom-six for the majority of their time. Knoblauch also seems to have an over-reliance on the big guns, playing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl heavy minutes on a nightly basis.
Team offence and defence have also taken a considerable drop this season under his watch.
Those are the biggest complaints, and the team’s performance of late isn’t helping his case. Yet, there are a few signs that point toward Knoblauch remaining behind the bench a while longer.
The most obvious is that the Oilers’ coach just signed a three-year contract extension last October that will run through the 2028-29 NHL season. It feels unlikely that both management and ownership will run away from that commitment before it even kicks in.
Another is that this is a franchise desperate for some sort of consistency at the head coaching position. Since McDavid’s rookie season in 2015-16, the Oilers have had five different head coaches. They may stick things out a bit longer with Knoblauch to maintain that, resting on the fact that he’s brought this team far into the playoffs on multiple occasions.
Still, there should be some temptation to pull the trigger in an attempt to turn around this runaway train. A name like Pete DeBoer could entice management, as he’s a veteran coach who has had a lot of success coaching teams built like Edmonton.
In the end, the Oilers absolutely could entertain the option of firing the head coach, but a few things may get in the way of that right now. If the Oilers continue to slip out of the playoffs, things could get dicey very quickly.