TALKING POINTS: Kris Knoblauch introduced as head coach of the Edmonton Oilers

Oilers CEO of Hockey Operations Jeff Jackson, General Manager & President of Hockey Operations Ken Holland, Head Coach Kris Knoblauch and Assistant Coach Paul Coffey spoke to the media from the Hall of Fame Room at Rogers Place on Sunday after the 45-year-old was announced as the next head coach of the club earlier in the morning.

Knoblauch takes over behind the Oilers bench after Head Coach Jay Woodcroft and Assistant Coach Dave Manson were relieved of their duties.

During the press conference, topics included the timing of the coaching change, accountability in the Oilers locker room, Knoblauch's experience as a head coach, and more.

Read the full transcript and watch the entire press conference below.

Holland delivers his opening remarks:

“Thank you all for coming here on short notice. Today's been a very difficult, tough day. Woke up this morning and we got in late last night, and I called Woody and Dave Manson and informed them that we were making a coaching change. I have a relationship with Woody that goes back to 2005 when he was a video coach with the Detroit Red Wings, and I want to thank them for their contributions to our team over the last two years in helping us go to the final four and the final eight. They work hard, they're good hockey people, but ultimately, this is a difficult decision.”

“We're in a business where you’ve got to win games, and as we got out of the gate early on, you figure you're going to turn it around. You're into game three, game four, game five and as our record continued to get worse, Jeff and I were talking on more than an everyday basis – probably two or three times a day over the last week – trying to figure out solutions. I've been on the phone here trying to talk to other teams to see what's out there, but in terms of trades, when you're twelve games into a season, you’ve got to have a trading partner. So I kept hoping were going to win a game and really, after we lost the game against San Jose on Thursday night, Jeff and I started to talk really seriously about whether should we consider making a coaching change. Obviously, we made the decision to make that decision. So again, very difficult to deliver the news to Woody and Mance."

"With that, obviously I'm excited to introduce Kris Knoblauch as the next head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. In 2015 when I was in Detroit, we were looking for a head coach for the Grand Rapids Griffins and Kris was one of the three or four finalists. We ended up hiring Todd Nelson, so I was aware in 2015 that Kris was one of the real top young coaches out there. He was coaching I believe it was Erie at the time, and ultimately, I made a decision to go with a veteran.

"I've followed Kris' career from afar since he got into our [final coaching finalists] and he's won everywhere. He won a championship in the Western Hockey League, he won a championship in the Ontario Hockey League. He took his team last year [the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack] to the final four. He spent two years in the National Hockey League in Philadelphia as an assistant coach under Dave Hakstol and has been a head coach in the American Hockey League for the last five years. He's got roots here in Edmonton, so I think he’s one of the bright young coaches in the National Hockey League. Again, as I said, I've followed his career from afar and am really excited to introduce Kris today as the next head coach of the Edmonton Oilers."

Knoblauch delivers his opening remarks:

“Thanks very much, Ken. First of all, I just like to thank Mr. Katz's family for this opportunity; Ken and Jeff for reaching out and believing in me for this unbelievable opportunity; but also, I would like to thank the New York Rangers for giving me this opportunity. I know a lot of teams wouldn't have allowed their head coach in the American League to go out, so to the Rangers, Mr. Dolan, Chris Drury and Ryan Martin, I’m very appreciative of what they allowed me to do."

"As for this opportunity, it's an unbelievable opportunity. It's been a crazy 24 hours for me. I was on the bench yesterday in Hartford and then on a plane to get here. To be able to coach the Edmonton Oilers – with such a strong hockey culture, history and passionate fans – to be here as a head coach is a little bit of a dream for me. I'm from around here. I came from Saskatchewan. I came here, played junior hockey in I believe it was 1996 for the Edmonton Ice, stayed here, played for the University of Alberta Golden Bears and met my wife here. We have a lot of friends here. The fact that I have this opportunity to be here with the Oilers back in Edmonton is really exciting for me."

Holland on making a coaching change despite Woodcroft’s high win percentage (.671) and the Oilers underachieving with a 3-9-1 record through 13 games:

“I think that's why I've said it's a difficult decision. Certainly, we've played at a high level under [Woodcroft]. I think we had the second-best winning percentage over the last 120 games under Jay, but we're in win-now mode and I think we've talked about that over the last few years that I've been here. I think since I've got here, when you look at our team – the players on the team, the age of the team – the time is now to try to win. 

"I guess we could get into the debate: is 12 games or 13 games enough? I think if you wait another 10 games and things don't change, it's probably too late, so Jeff and I felt that it was something that needed to be done."

Knoblauch on taking over the Oilers bench midseason and being able to put his fingerprints on the team:

“I've only had one experience of coming in midseason. That was a long time ago. When I met with these guys and explained my experience coming in midseason, and the first time I'll admit I did terribly, I learned so much from it. I know it's important that when you're coming midseason, you can only do so much to change the systems and lines. The players have to have some stability, and there are things as a coach you want to put your stamp on and this is really important for me. I see that ‘we're failing in this area, we need to improve that,’ but as a coach coming in, you can only do so much. You can only change so many areas."

"I really want to get involved and reach out to all of my coaching staff. I met them just briefly a few moments ago, but [I want to] make some progress there on the lay of the land and what's going on with the team. I have my opinions and I certainly want to hear theirs, but I also want to reach out and talk to the players – veterans and young players – and get their perspective and let them know what I'm expecting from them. Ultimately, I see a very talented team underperforming. That's why I'm here. But ultimately, I'm trying to build something and we can obviously have the success that was anticipated at the beginning of the year.”

Holland on Paul Coffey’s addition to the bench as an assistant coach:

“Paul Coffey is going to replace Dave Manson to work with our defencemen. Obviously, Paul's the greatest defenceman in the history of the Oilers franchise. He's been with the organization now for a number of years. Paul's watched every game, has a relationship with all our players, especially our defencemen, and he's been around our team a lot. For stretches, you guys [the media] have seen him around here, so I've talked to Paul a lot over the time. So I think Paul is a great man to come in and work with our defenceman. Like I said, he really knows the team and I think he'll be really beneficial with Kris.” 

Coffey on balancing both of his roles as a special advisor to owner & chairman Daryl Katz and now as an assistant coach:

“That's all about respect and the respect I have for this organization. Daryl is second to none. I will say out of the gate that I wasn't lobbying for this job. I know that Ken and Jeff had talked quite a bit. Jeff kind of said something to me the other day, ‘Would you ever think of coaching?’ and I said no. I'm very happy with my position. I'm happy with the strategy and the conversation I have with Daryl, Kenny, etc. in the organization, and it kind of came about yesterday afternoon. My wife, I told her at 6:30 p.m. last night. That was a shocker to her. But for me personally, nothing but respect for Jay and Dave. It's terrible that two great coaches had to take the burden for the start of this team, because I think there's a better start out there. But stuff happens.

Most of you know in this room that I'm very tied with the Oilers. I love the Oilers. All of us do. All of us [Hall of Famers] have won Cups in this organization. It was still to Jeff ‘No,’ but I'll do anything to help. Having a quick conversation with Kris prior to his game last night and getting a feel for him, getting a feel for his strategies, I just said, ‘Hey, any way I can help, I will,’ and that puts me here today. I'm an assistant coach. I work for Kris. I work for Ken. Jeff's higher up. Daryl's the owner of the team, but my focus will be on the players. Have I ever coached in the NHL? No. Do I understand the game? Yes. Do I understand players? Yes. Do I make them better? Yes. Could I communicate with them? Absolutely. I’m looking forward to it.

Holland on the pressure of playing in Edmonton and hiring Knoblauch midseason to correct the early-season course of the Oilers:

“I think as Kris said, certainly Glen Gulutzan, Mark Stuart and Coff too are going to be very [important]. Paul has watched. He knows our team. He was in training camp. He watches us play all the time. Kris and I talked. He's watched some video of us on the plane or in the last 24 hours. He's watched some video of our recent games. But certainly, I think he'll probably lean on the people who have been here for a short time until he gets a feel for the team.

“Almost two years ago, I made the decision obviously to go from Dave Tippett to Woody, and the team really responded. When Woody came in, I don't think he made a whole lot of changes. He made a few tweaks. He went to eleven and seven and did a couple of things, and we were about six or seven games out of a playoff berth before playing our way into the playoffs and going on to the Final Four. So, there's more time. There are still 68, 69 games to go and I think he'll probably lean on the people that have been here and implement the things that are really important to him.”

Holland on if he believes Woodcroft’s message wasn’t being received in the locker room:

“No, I don't think they tuned him out. I think that there are probably some players in there who are disappointed about this decision today. I'm paid to make decisions, difficult decisions, and some decisions work and some decisions don't. But certainly, I felt that through lots of communication with Jeff, I just felt that we needed to make a change. We weren't playing well enough. I think again, there's lots of runway left with this change to try to make a surge here and try to play our way back into the mix, but I don't think they lost him. But I couldn't wait around for another 10-to-15 games to find out.”

On if the fixing needs to be in the core of the Oilers group:

Jackson: “I would say that I came in three months ago into this job sort of with a long-term view of getting some structure and strategy. I sat here in front of you guys then and that's still the case. I can't control what happened in the past with coaching changes and different managers over the years. I think our focus is that we have a team that we believe should compete for the Stanley Cup. I'm a long-term strategy person, but I'm also here to try to win this year. So like Ken said earlier, we've been talking a lot. We've got our entire pro scouting group and analytics group working overtime on scenarios to try to make us better. We're pursuing every avenue to do that. Bringing in Kris was a decision, like Kenny said, that we thought we had to make."

"Although he doesn't have head coaching experience in the NHL – with twelve years as a head coach winning championships in other leagues, developing players in the American League, and having a little opportunity in New York to be a head coach on an interim basis – he has a very good feel for the players. He knows how to take the star players and empower them; but more importantly, he gives everyone a role and they know what the role is and there's accountability at the end of the day. That's the thing that I've watched over the years with Kris. I was very close to the team when they were in Erie. I had a lot of clients, not just Connor McDavid. I had clients of ours when I was an agent in Hartford. I've seen what he can do with teams. So all of that put together, that's why Kris is sitting here today.

Holland: “I believe in the core. I think nobody's played more than five playoff series in the last two years. We've gone to the final four. We've gone to the final eight. Last year we were top-five or six in the league in points. We've lost to the last two Stanley Cup champions in series and they've beat us and won the cup, so I believe in the core. I just think it's that we're in the prime. We're 13 games in. The time is now and just could we have waited ten more games? Obviously, we won a really good game last night. Could we all of a sudden have parlayed last night into a win on Monday, and a win on Wednesday and more wins, I can't read the future. We made a decision that felt we needed to make to kind of jumpstart our season. I don't think it's got any on the core. The core has done it. We've done it over the last two years, so it's the nature of the National Hockey League. It's tough, it's a hard league and we didn't want to wait around any longer.

On discussions with Oilers players before the coaching change was made:

Holland: “I talked over this past week with some of the veterans on our team. Not going to tell you what they said. I take the information and ultimately, I have to make decisions. Obviously, Jeff's got a long relationship with Connor. You can probably talk about that.”

Jackson: “We didn't consult with the players on this decision; never spoke with Connor, Leon, Nuge or Nursey or any of the other leadership group. These guys are here to play hockey. They know that's what they want to do. They don't like being involved in these types of decisions. That's my experience. So the fact that Kris was Connor's coach in Erie in 2014 and 2015, it only has something to do with this because I think Kris Knoblauch is a very good coach. Connor didn't have anything to do with this decision and neither did the other leadership group.”

Knoblauch on if roles for the assistant coaches will remain the same:

“Everything's staying the same. Obviously, there's going to be some different responsibilities. I'm going to get to know them. As I said, I've only talked to them briefly a few moments ago, but I really want to know what their strengths are, how they feel our team could be playing better, and I've talked to Paul myself a little bit more in-depth and I just think I'll be making some decisions on what's best for the coaching staff and where we can delegate.”

Knoblauch on coaching Connor McDavid in the OHL with the Erie Otters and if their relationship will change in the NHL:

 “Well, I'm sure it's going to change quite a bit. I was very happy – obviously an understatement – to have him in junior. I had him when he was 15 for half a season. At 16, by then he was one of the best players in the league and by 17, he was absolutely star and dominated the league. He did not deserve or did not belong there, he was just that good. So the fact that I got to coach him in Erie, I feel very fortunate to have that opportunity and now to be able to do it twice is pretty lucky. So as for the relationship over the years, we've stayed in touch a little bit but just with the odd text or whatever, but not in great detail." 

Knoblauch on what he’s observed in Connor McDavid’s game this season:

“What I see out of him is what I see from a lot of the team – a team that's trying very hard, is very passionate, that wants to win and wants to do what's right; but ultimately, right now are very frustrated and as a player who's played any kind of sport, obviously in hockey, if you are frustrated and are feeling down, it’s tough to perform at the highest level. And as Ken said earlier, this is a very difficult league and certainly, you need all your players playing their best, but your best players being their best."

“Right now, I want Connor and everyone just to take a breath, relax, play hockey and find some joy in it and play the way they can. Because right now, I just think there's too much pressure on them and they're feeling it. So that's my take on what I've seen afar, from watching some video, but when I talk to those guys maybe I'll get a different perspective. That’s what I’m seeing right now.

Holland on the timeline for the coaching change beginning before Saturday’s win in Seattle:

“Yes, yesterday afternoon. Jeff and I talked yesterday afternoon. The team was on the road in Seattle and I made a decision that we were going to get the wheels in motion. We had to get permission from the Rangers and had to obviously negotiate a contract. We played Saturday, play Monday and we play Wednesday, so whether it was yesterday or the day before, it wasn't something that could just transpire in 12 hours. We had to get him from Hartford to here. So officially, I made the decision on Saturday during the game and made the decision that when we got home last night [Saturday] that I would meet with Jay and Dave, and I met with them this morning.”

Holland on if he’s ever had a situation in his career where he knew he would make a coaching change before the next game:

“No. Obviously the first time I made the change midseason was when I let Dave Tippett go and brought in Woody two years ago. Every other time I made my coaches, Scotty Bowman retired, Dave Lewis went into a work stoppage and they made a change coming out of a work stoppage. I had Mike Babcock for ten years and he became a free agent and left to go to Toronto. And then, I did make the change with Dave Tippett, so this would be a first.”

Knoblauch on reducing goals against:

“Well, the first thing, and I'm sure every coach talks about it, is if you're going to have success in this league, you have to be good defensively and reduce your goals against. The penalty kill and five-on-five play are obviously a big part of that, and throughout the years, I think last year 15 of the top 17 [defensive] teams made the playoffs, or the top defensive teams for goals against made the playoffs. The year before that it was 16-of-19, so obviously there's a very strong correlation that if you are a good defensive team, you're going to have success winning games. I think any player wants to have success individually, but it feels a lot better to win as a team.”

"I think during my time as a head coach and certainly my time in Erie, I was fortunate to have some really good offensive players and throughout my time, I don't think I hindered their offensive production at all. But in my time we were always either first or second in goals against average, and I think I try and empower my players to commit to playing defence without having to sacrifice any offence. That's certainly a message that I'm going to try and instill into our team, and hopefully, if I'm going to be successful, it'll show the wins.

Knoblauch on his process of establishing relationships with players:

“I think my first resource is obviously the coaching staff. Stuey and Glen have been with the group for a while, and obviously, these men up here with me. I've already on the flight been talking about ‘what this player needs’ and ‘what's his identity?’ Obviously, I know some of these players very well from watching NHL games, and some of these players I've coached. So I have my view on what players bring, but that's just a shell of what they really are. I think I need to get some more information from these guys and then I need to get to know my players. Hopefully, I can start tonight with some phone calls, but tomorrow when I meet with them, try and meet as many as possible and start building some relationships. I'm sure they'll share their frustration. I'm sure a few of them will be hesitant about was this coaching change necessary. Some are going to be very excited about it, but I think in my career as a coach, I've done a pretty good job of connecting with my players, giving them an identity and working on them to become better players. So tomorrow is going to be a big step. The first step.

Holland on the difficulty of relieving Manson of his duties following the passing of his wife Lana to cancer this past August:

“It was incredibly difficult. I would say it was emotional. You build relationships with people right? I went to Prince Albert in August for the celebration of life for Mance's wife, and my wife Cindy, they were good friends. So on top of just the decision, certainly there's that factor into the decision that made it all that much more difficult. So that's why today is an incredibly difficult day.”

Jackson on the coaching change being made collectively by the management group:

“Kenny said it best. I think we've been talking a lot every day since the beginning of the season, since we lost in Vancouver on opening night, and that dialogue has been going on the entire time. We agreed on a lot of things, and the one thing we agreed on was that we've been very inconsistent. We played 13 games. I think we probably played eight or nine really good periods in there. We've had stretches and games where we looked dominant and then, we've sort of fallen off. So that sort of was the theme of our discussion – our consistency is not where it needs to be. And we talked a lot the last two or three days. There was no ultimate decision-maker. We talked about it. I said, ‘What do you think? Here's what I think,’ and we came to the decision together. 

Holland on little mistakes costing the Oilers and if accountability was an issue for the group under Woodcroft:

“You know what? That's a great question. I'm not sure if I got [the answer]. If I had the specific answer, we probably would have addressed it far sooner than this. The coaching staff was doing video every day. I've sat in a bunch of the meetings here over the last week as they worked on this and worked on that, so they're trying to hold them accountable. I think all coaches try to hold their players accountable. Some are better at it than others because maybe for whatever their message is or how they do it, I think it gets to be a little more difficult when you have a 21-man roster than when you have a 23-man roster. For the most part almost every game, we only can dress the players who are healthy. When you’ve got a 23-man roster – 14 forwards, seven defencemen and two goalies –  you can healthy scratch some forwards and you can healthy scratch a defenceman. We haven't had that at our disposal because of the salary cap and the decisions that I made on the team in the off-season. So that’s one tool that the coaches use that wasn’t at Jay’s fingertips. Certainly, you see in some games that players sit out for half a period or a period to get their attention. Woody and I did talk about that, so it's not like we haven't talked about that. Ultimately he didn’t do it. I was fine with that. I understood the reasons why.

"It's been these consistent mistakes – I call them boo-boo’s – they’re mental mistakes where you can do lots of good things, and all of a sudden you have one mental mistake, a bad pinch or a bad this or a bad turnover, and it's in the net. It's not only the ‘1’ that goes on the board, it's what it does to your whole team. Psychologically it’s like drip, drip, drip, and probably was something that we had going on again last year. Then at the deadline when we got Ekholm, I think we finished the ninth-best team in the league in goals against. But also, it's what it does to the team emotionally. They really responded to it, and now we're kind of back to drip, drip, drip. And I don’t really know if that’s on Woody. Obviously, we made a coaching change, and I'm hoping that with the coaching change, there's going to be fewer of those mental mistakes.”

Knoblauch on his approach towards accountability and limiting those mental mistakes:

“That's probably the most difficult thing with coaching, holding guys accountable, because as a coach, you don't want your players playing in fear. You don't want them every time they're 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 your players to feel empowered that they can make a play and contribute to the team. But obviously, accountability is very important and as a coaching staff, it's very important for us to empower the players to have the confidence and make the right plays, give them guidance and direction on what to do in each situation, and if there are mistakes as a coaching staff, you got to be able to live with them. But if they're mistakes that happen over and over again, or if they're lazy mistakes, then obviously that's where you have to hold them accountable. And the biggest part of holding players accountable is just taking away ice time. Whether they come out of the lineup or you withhold their next shift, ultimately that's the currency that a head coach has.”

Coffey on what he’s liked from the Oilers defencemen and what they can do to help limit some of those mistakes:

“I've liked everything about our blue line. Unfortunately, sometimes, we've been a little bit inconsistent. Why I say that is because there are guys that have really good games. I think the simplest thing for me, with Kris, Stuey and Gully, our approach is going to be just trying to get them as consistent as possible; not trying to play outside themselves; play their game and play the odds – know where you are in the ice at all times and stay off your backhand. But I like our defence. I think we've got a really good defence. But defence isn't one or two players, it's a group and I think if we play as a team, I’ve always said as a defenceman you need to know what your partner's doing before he does. I'd like us to communicate a little more, but I like our defence and we're only going to get better."

Knoblauch on his neutral-zone and defensive-zone philosophies:

"Throughout the neutral zone, I think you talk or you hear NHL coaches talk, ‘What is successful?’ It's about playing fast, moving the puck up immediately, getting the puck to the forwards to make plays, and the longer that we hold the puck and as we say, dust it off and slow the game down, all it allows is the opposition get into position, get into their structure, which makes it just more difficult to generate any offence. So one of the things Paul and I have been talking quite a bit about and what our team is going to hear about is playing fast. But mostly, that comes from our defencemen moving the puck up and we do have some defencemen that are very capable of skating the puck up. There are going to be times when that is necessary, but ultimately, it is getting the puck up the ice as quick as possible into our forwards' hands to make plays. Simpler is often the best play, so that answers your neutral zone question.

“As for the defensive zone, we're going to look at what the Oilers were doing in these past few games. Personally, I feel much more comfortable with more of a zone-structure defence. I think with the personnel that we have here, it's going to be very similar to what they were doing where a lot of teams in NHL are kind of going to that type of system where the defensemen stay in their quadrants, closer around to the net and have the forwards low forward expand a little bit more. Certainly, I want to be more aggressive in the defensive zone. The less time you spend in the D-zone, the less time there is for opportunities to take penalties, make mistakes and ultimately give up goals. I want to encourage our players to play fast and strong in the defensive zone, but I also want to be in the offensive zone where we can take advantage of them not being prepared and not being in their structure, because often that's where goals happen. They come off mistakes and the slower you play, the less opportunities. You have to take advantage of those mistakes.

Knoblauch on what his arrival could help do for the Oilers this season:

“Well, I learned a lot of lessons in Hartford, junior hockey and my time in Philadelphia, but I think the most important thing is your players just have to feel good about themselves to perform. And right now, I see some guys who are very beaten up. They are frustrated, put so much pressure on themselves to perform, and it just hasn't been healthy for them. So sometimes you get a new head coach and it almost starts like it's a new regular season. Last season is over and you're starting a new one. It's fresh. Everyone starts and you hear about hitting the playoffs. Everyone's got zeros meaning no one's got a goal, no one's got an assist. It's a new season. Ultimately that's what you get with a new head coach. It's a reset and hopefully, our players see this. It takes the pressure off them and says, ‘Alright, let's get back to basics’ and I think it's just not going to happen with a new coach or a new message. But I do think that there is a very strong group in there, a very talented group, and things will get worked out and it'll be a very successful and entertaining hockey year.”