Next Oilers coach under pressure to win immediately with McDavid future in doubt

Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will not be hiring the next coach of the Edmonton Oilers. 

But whoever replaces Kris Knoblauch will need to get the best out of the two superstars, especially with McDavid’s future with the franchise perhaps in the balance. 

“We’ll certainly talk to them, but they don’t want to be choosing coaches, that’s not their role,” Edmonton general manager Stan Bowman said Thursday. “They’re in a different category than just a regular player, they’re elite players that know this team, know their game. I think we’ll have conversations with them, but they’re not choosing coaches.

“They don’t want the pressure of choosing a coach.”

The pressure to get the next coach right is immense. Edmonton is once again in the market for a coach after firing Knoblauch along with assistant Mark Stuart on Thursday. 

Knoblauch coached Edmonton for three seasons, two ending in the Stanley Cup Final, and had signed a three-year contract Oct. 3, 2025, which was to begin this upcoming season. 

The next Edmonton coach will be the sixth for McDavid and eighth for Draisaitl since the two entered the League in 2015-16 and 2014-15, respectively. 

“They’re not going to be picking a coach, but we’ll have conversations as we go through it,” Bowman said. “They’re not going to be in on the interviews or anything like that, it’s more just general things about their game and our team in general. Yes, we’ll talk to them, but they’re not going to be in the decision-making.”

Choosing the right coach will be vital for the Oilers, considering McDavid is going into the first of a two-year contract he signed Oct. 6, 2025, at the below market rate of $12.5 million per season. 

He has repeatedly said his No. 1 goal is winning a Stanley Cup. If he doesn’t see progress in the immediate future, he could opt to go elsewhere as an unrestricted free agent after the 2027-28 season.  

Draisaitl began his time in Edmonton playing for Dallas Eakins and then briefly under Todd Nelson before returning to junior after 37 games in his rookie season. 

McDavid’s tenure with the Oilers began under Todd McLellan and has since played for Ken Hitchcock, Dave Tippett, Jay Woodcroft and Knoblauch. 

Draisaitl had 97 points (35 goals, 62 assists) in 65 games and is going into the second year of an eight-year $112-million contract ($14 million average annual value) signed on Sept. 3, 2024.   

Bowman said the process of hiring a new coach has already started.

“I don’t have a timeline on it, we’re going to go through a process,” he said. “We’re not looking to drag this out and it will take as long as it takes. I don’t know that yet. We’re not going to rush into anything in the next couple of days here, but I think we are going to let that play out. 

“We’re not going to stretch it out any longer than it needs to be, whether that’s a week, 10 days, two weeks, I don’t know that. We’ll get to that when it plays out.”

Draisaitl and McDavid said they each felt Edmonton took a step back this season, voicing their displeasure after being eliminated in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks. 

“I am concerned because we’re not trending in the right direction,” Draisaitl at his season-ending media availability May 2. “We’ve taken big steps backwards and have to get a grip of this and head back in the right direction.

McDavid agreed, saying Edmonton was an average team with high expectations following a 5-2 loss in Anaheim in Game 6 on April 30. 

“It’s only a couple of days ago I made those comments, and I feel the same as I did a couple of days ago and agree with Leon that the organization as a whole has taken a step back,” McDavid said May 2. “It starts with me, it starts with Leon, we all can be better, we need to be better.”

The earlier-than-expected exit put the entire organization under scrutiny and Bowman, who was named GM in July 2024, decided a coaching change was necessary to get Edmonton back to being a championship contender.

Bowman also admitted management and the coaching staff weren’t always on the same page this season. 

“We were not always totally in sync, but I don’t think any team around the League is exactly in sync,” Bowman said. “I don’t think that was a big issue. I certainly think there were some players and their roles weren’t what I think they should have been. I don’t think that was an overriding issue. I think there’s that balance between collaboration, which I think we did have, but at the end of the day, the coach has to do what he believes is best and from there the results are judged and that’s how we got to this point.” 

Knoblauch, who coached McDavid during his junior career with the Erie Otters (Ontario Hockey League) from 2012–2015, had a 135-77-21 record in three seasons with Edmonton and was 31-22 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs after replacing Jay Woodcroft, who was fired Nov. 12, 2023. 

Edmonton got to the Stanley Cup Final in 2024 and 2025 under Knoblauch, losing to the Florida Panthers on both occasions. 

This season Edmonton (41-30-11) finished third in the Pacific Division. 

“We have to improve,” Draisaitl said. He's (McDavid) signed for two more years, and God knows where that goes, but we have two years here as of right now and we have to get significantly better."

Bowman said the team needed a change behind the bench and this was the right time. 

“When Kris came to the Oilers, he was the perfect coach at that time, he was exactly what that group needed to take them to almost the Stanley Cup, to Game 7 and then Game 6,” Bowman said. “But as time passes things change, things change for the coach, themselves and the players change, even the players that are here, they evolve, they get a couple of years older, they need maybe different things. 

“So, what worked one year, or a couple of years, it doesn’t continue to work, then that’s where we are in the results business. I think there is an element of that in play here.”