Last Wednesday, after the Edmonton Oilers’ loss to the Calgary Flames, Leon Draisaitl gave a post game interview that basically called out everybody on the team, from coaches to players, from defence to offence to goaltending.
Here is the interview:
When asked about the Oilers still trying to find their defence despite being 58 games into the season, Draisaitl said, “we’re just not consistent enough…just lolly gag through games and try to get winning streaks going, and you need everybody, it starts with coaches, like everybody. You’re never going to win if you have four or five guys going. It starts at the top, we can be better, our leaders can be better and we’ll take the break and regroup.”
Draisaitl looked frustrated as he gave this interview and I think there are pieces of this interview that have been blown out of proportion. However, he did mention coaching and leadership specifically which makes you wonder where Head Coach Kris Knoblauch currently stands in the minds of the Oilers management and players.
A look at Knoblauch’s stats
Looking at the stats reveals that the team was extremely similar in the three season before Knoblauch was hired and the two and half seasons since he has been hired. The Oilers have the exact same .627 points percentage in those two stretches actually, which, considering how long each of those stretches are, is an insane coincidence. The rest of the stats are pretty similar as well, here are a few:
| Years | Record | Points % | GF/GM | GA/GM | power play% | penalty kill% |
| 2020-Hiring | 137-78-18 | .627 | 3.55 | 3.06 | 28.6 | 78.5 |
| Hiring-Now | 122-69-18 | .627 | 3.42 | 2.92 | 27.0 | 79.1 |
None of these statistics have changed drastically under Kris Knoblauch, for better or for worse. Goals For and power play% are down slightly, but Goals Against and penalty kill% are slightly better.
An opinion on where Knoblauch should stand
Personally I believe going to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals should earn you a much bigger safety net than what is—a very small blip in the road—but we have seen in the recent past how coaches can be shown the door very quickly after success.
In 2023, the same year Jay Woodcroft was fired in favour of Kris Knoblauch, Dean Evason was fired by Minnesota 19 games into the season after making the playoffs four years in a row, although admittedly with very limited success.
Considering Edmonton is only on a three-game skid right now, and that they are second in the Pacific Division, I’d say that Kris Knoblauch is not CURRENTLY in danger of being fired.
That being said, Knoblauch’s recent success is also a bit of a curse. Making the Stanley Cup Final two years in a row makes expectations very high for this season. While Edmonton currently sits four points behind Vegas, they are also only one point ahead of Seattle and Anaheim who currently sit in the second wild card spot. So while I don’t think Knoblauch is quite in the hot seat yet, if Edmonton were to fall out of a playoff spot, he would feel the heat real fast.
In the same vein, there have been rumours that the Oilers may bring legend Paul Coffey back into a coaching role but at this point they are very much just rumours. Coffey acted as the defence coach in the 2023–24 season which turned out to be one of the Oilers’ better defensive season in the last ten years. This late in the season, if a change needs to be made, I would opt for a smaller change like bringing Paul Coffey back into the fold.
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