The Edmonton Oilers’ search for a new head coach has encountered an unusual complication that extends beyond typical NHL business practices. While General Manager Stan Bowman has publicly outlined a coaching search following the dismissal of Kris Knoblauch, the team’s preferred candidate remains unavailable. This is due to circumstances that may have to do with the Vegas Golden Knights’ organizational history.
Bruce Cassidy sits at home, fired by Vegas in March with more than a year left on his contract. He is unable to interview with other teams despite being the hottest coaching candidate available. The Golden Knights control his rights. Plus according to multiple reports, they’re in no hurry to grant permission to anyone, least of all their Pacific Division rivals in Edmonton.
The official stance is predictably corporate. Vegas is focused on their playoff run, they have other priorities, they’ll address the situation when the time is right. But according to insider Elliotte Friedman, there’s a much more personal motivation lurking beneath the surface and it involves another coach Vegas fired, Peter DeBoer.
Vegas wary of repeating Peter DeBoer debacle with Bruce Cassidy
Friedman laid out the theory during a recent appearance on OilersNow, and it paints Vegas management in a particularly petty light.
“I had a couple of people who told me that after Vegas fired Peter DeBoer, he went to Dallas and had three-straight years in the Western Conference Final,” Friedman explained. “I heard inside the Golden Knights organization it was kinda like ‘This guy, we fired him, and he beat us,’ and I think this left a pretty sour taste.”
Vegas dismissed DeBoer in May 2022 after the team missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history. They replaced him with Cassidy, who promptly delivered a Stanley Cup in his first season. Meanwhile, DeBoer landed in Dallas and proceeded to make the Western Conference Final in all three seasons there including a 2023 series win over the very team that fired him.
That 2023 defeat stung. The Stars knocked out the defending champion Golden Knights in six games, and DeBoer’s success became an uncomfortable reminder of Vegas’s organizational impatience. When Dallas returned to face Vegas again in subsequent playoff battles, it only reinforced the point that maybe the coach wasn’t the problem.
Past frustrations indeed the heart of the problem
Friedman initially dismissed the theory as too simplistic, too petty for a professional organization. Then the calls started coming.
“I initially said I’m not sure I buy that, and then after I said it, I started getting calls and texts from people saying, ‘You better start buying that, because that’s very much at the heart of this,'” he said.
Friedman noted that Vegas has repeatedly denied permission for other teams to interview their staff members at various levels, whether for AHL coaches looking to move up or NHL assistants seeking head coaching opportunities elsewhere.
But Cassidy was fired. His relationship with the Golden Knights ended when they showed him the door with eight games left in the regular season, their playoff hopes still technically alive. Vegas decided they didn’t want him anymore, and now they’re determined to control where he goes next.
NHL Analyst Jeff Marek had suggested that coaching contracts may need to change as a result of this standoff. It’s hard to argue otherwise. The current system enables exactly this kind of gamesmanship.
For now, though, Vegas holds all the cards. They’re paying Cassidy his reported $4.5M annual salary whether he coaches or not. The only question is whether they’ll eventually let him pursue opportunities elsewhere or whether the DeBoer memory runs so deep that they’d rather watch him sit for an entire season.
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