Knoblauch brings ‘even-keeled’ approach to job as Oilers coach

Sherry Bassin laughed as he told a story about the first time Kris Knoblauch coached Connor McDavid.

This was with Erie of the Ontario Hockey League sometime in 2012-15, when Bassin was the owner and the general manager. Knoblauch was the coach. McDavid was a center destined to be a superstar in the NHL.

Knoblauch benched McDavid for at least part of the third period of a game at Windsor.

“I thought, ‘Oh, my god,’” Bassin said.

Bassin came down to the locker room afterward, wondering how McDavid would react.

“I said, ‘How you doin’?’” Bassin said. “He said, ‘I deserved it.’”

The point isn’t that Knoblauch will breathe fire and bench everybody, even McDavid, after the Edmonton Oilers hired him to replace Jay Woodcroft as coach Sunday.

“The point is, he tries to make everybody accountable, but he doesn’t do it [for show],” Bassin said. “He’s not interested in answering questions to the press about it after. He would have spent plenty of time with Connor about it. He wouldn’t have just [done it] and then leave it at that.”

Bassin said Knoblauch is not “a teller and a yeller.”

“There’s a lot of learning going on,” Bassin said. “His communication level is very high. He expects people to take responsibility, but he doesn’t just designate it. He’ll bring them in and talk about it.”

Dave Hakstol described Knoblauch much the same way.

After Knoblauch won at least 50 games in a 68-game schedule for the fourth straight season and led Erie to the OHL title in 2016-17, Hakstol hired him to be an assistant on his staff with the Philadelphia Flyers.

Knoblauch worked with the forwards and ran the power play under Hakstol from 2017-19. That is his only NHL experience to date, other than six games with the New York Rangers in 2020-21 and two with them in 2021-22, when he came up from Hartford of the American Hockey League to fill in as coach due to COVID-19 disruptions.

“I’d say he’s very, very even-keeled,” said Hakstol, now coach of the Seattle Kraken. “Level personality. Communicates well. Obviously, everybody’s got a little bit of emotion to them, and it comes out in different ways, but his general approach is very well thought out and communicative.”

The Oilers are hoping that is what they need.

Jeff Jackson, the CEO of hockey operations, and Ken Holland, the president and general manager, made it clear in a press conference that they expect to compete for the Stanley Cup. They’re in win-now mode. With the Oilers 3-9-1, 31st in the 32-team NHL, they couldn’t afford to wait to see if Woodcroft could fix it.

Jackson, who used to be McDavid’s agent, said the Oilers center had nothing to do with this decision. Several other of Jackson’s clients played for Knoblauch in Erie and Hartford.

Oilers forwards Connor Brown and Warren Foegele also played for Knoblauch in Erie.

“He has a very good feel for the players,” Jackson said. “He knows how to take the really star players and empower them, but more importantly he gives everyone a role, and they know what their role is, and there is accountability at the end of the day, and that’s the thing that I’ve watched over the years with Kris.”

Knoblauch was behind the bench for Hartford on Saturday and in a press conference in Edmonton on Sunday. Now he needs to get to know everyone and make an impact fast.

The Oilers host the New York Islanders on Monday (8:30 p.m. ET; TVAS, SN, MSGSN) and the Kraken on Wednesday.

“How much you can instill in 48 hours, it’s not a lot,” Hakstol said. “But I’m sure he’s going to have a plan to make sure his group is playing within the tempo and the mentality that he believes in. That’s the one thing I can guarantee: He’ll be well thought out about it and will have a plan going in as to how to institute everything.”

Knoblauch called this a reset for the Oilers. Perhaps that alone can make a difference, starting with McDavid, who has dealt with an upper-body injury and has 10 points (two goals, eight assists) in 11 games this season.

“I want Connor, and everyone, just to take a breath, relax, play hockey and find some joy into it and play the way they can,” Knoblauch said, “because right now I just think there’s too much pressure on them, and they’re feeling it.”

Benching players isn’t the answer unless they’re making lazy or repeated mistakes.

“Probably the most difficult thing with coaching is holding guys accountable, because as a coach, you don’t want your players playing in fear,” Knoblauch said. “You don’t want them every time they hit the ice over the boards, [thinking], ‘Is this the shift that I make a mistake and I’m out of the lineup? Is it when I get benched?’”

You want them learning from their mistakes, which is why you bring in someone like Knoblauch.

“He’s a teacher,” Bassin said. “I don’t like any coach to lose their job, but if they made that decision, they’ve made a phenomenal replacement.”

NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report