Edmonton Oilers News: Coaching Staff Decisions | New Lines Discussion | Roster Changes

Edmonton Oilers News: Coaching Staff Decisions | New Lines Discussion | Roster Changes

Hey friends, this is Dolly TV. Glad to be back here with you on a Saturday. Obviously, it’s been a busy week, one that uh well, again, it’s stampede down here in the Calgary area. And of course, that always means unpredictability when it comes to the 9to-5, but it also means unpredictability to when you get off work and you check your phone and uh somebody’s hit you up to say, “Let’s go do something stupid.” So obviously the Oilers in the meanwhile have had a semi busy week since we last talked about Ike Howard joining the team for Sam O’Reilly. So kind of want to catch up on all of that and discuss some of the finer points I think coming out of it here for the Oilers over the next several weeks or really what could be the next several days, right? And I think uh we were supposed to have an announcement sometime this past week on coaching staff. instead kind of the under the table announcement was that Chris Knobblock’s now in the interview process. So, we’ll discuss that and more in a matter of moments. But if you are new to the channel, friends, I encourage you, I know I’ve taken a minute to get there, but I encourage you to hit that subscribe button. I appreciate everybody that has. We’re closing in on 18,000 subscribers here on Dollar TV. That’s a number we’ve been battling uphill for all year long. That’s my fault, not yours. So, appreciate your help along the way. Now, for the Oilers, what do we know? Ike Howard this past week, goalending coach is a big discussion. Obviously, Glenn Golitzson a while back joined the Dallas Stars. Jason Greger updated us on something that also happened with the Dallas Stars. And there’s something else about a skills coach we might have to discuss. So, let’s get to it, shall we? Uh goalie coach. This one coming uh coming on an update from yesterday and kind of updated a little bit today as well as the Oilers have spoken to several candidates for the goalie coach position. Uh Jeff Sele is an internal candidate. Stephen Wait, Sylvane Rodriguez, Pete Aubrey, Adam Francilia are rumored to be interested. And uh then of course Justin Cardinal, a name to keep an eye on as well. So really this this is just kind of the closest thing to the full list of potential guys I could find. And of course Patrick retweeted it right just in in time for the video. So piqu my curiosity and thought I’d bring up all the names that are potentially involved. Again, for those of you that know kind of what’s going on here with goalie coach, maybe more so even than I do, this one will explain it a little easier for you is Pelchce. Again, when I’m talking about the Dallas Stars, has joined Golitzson in Dallas. Uh Pelchce was our skating coach for that last little while. Schwarz obviously not ressigned. And then it’s uh according to Jason Greger at this point, this was the big news yesterday. It’s unlikely that Paul Coffee returns to the bench again. Like I said, his his job is probably about the best out of the worst of them last year, right? The power play kind of sucked. The penalty kill kind of sucked and of course the goalending department sucked. At least the defense at times was way better than we would ever want to give it credit for. And that was again under Paul Coffee. So yeah, you know, kind of kind of sucks to lose a guy that’s now been on your bench for two years and kind of stabilized a back end. That was a big question mark several years ago. But uh again, Paul Coffee was never long for the job. We knew that. And it’s good to see that uh well, you know, Chris Knobblock will get to run his own full bench potentially without somebody from Kate’s upper echelon of the organization standing next to him. And not saying that that at all was interference and a reason why we didn’t win the cup or anything. I’m just saying that’s that’s kind of what the design with Paul Coffee going down there was to kind of help out a rookie head coach and give some stability to a back end that again desperately needed it. Now Mark Stewart will be retained. So uh yeah, that’s that’s good news there. I guess again I thought it was more likely Coffee would return rather than Stewart. But, uh, Stuart again, maybe a victim of the roster shuffles when it comes to the penalty kill as opposed to, you know, a victim of just poor coaching. So, I guess that’s that’s fair enough. I really can’t complain about that one too much. So, in summary, Gregor summarizes two new assistants, a goalie coach and a skating and or skills coach. So the other side is the Oilers did make mention in the off seasonason right after the uh playoffs ended that they were looking to add a skills coach and this is the update as I said yesterday. No luck is doing interviews as of now. The goalie coach short list has Rodrigue and Aubrey. So we kind of saw the other names there a few moments ago. So for the Oilers, you know, it’s it’s a situation where there’s a lot of turnover this year roster-wise, but also benchwise. And this is a team that’s been to the Stanley Cup finals twice in a row and hasn’t gotten it done. So justified or not, it’s kind of interesting to see that our players are only getting more mature, only more, you know, seasoned for the playoffs year in year out. I think, you know, you had a more mature game at times from Conor McDavid and Leon Dell. you might want to blame him a little bit in the Stanley Cup final as you did last year, but I think it was a more mature, more focused uh situation through the first three rounds than maybe it has been in the last several playoffs from our bigger players and obviously losing. Zack Heyman plays a big part in that. So, that’s where I want to kind of take a look at the roster turnover and what Bob Staer put out three days ago. Again, this was kind of a few days back when I didn’t have a chance to get to things. So, my apologies, but obviously Bob Staer kind of throwing something out there just to get everybody going more or less just kind of talking about what the Oilers could potentially do here. And obviously with Ike Howard, McDavid and Heyman, that sounds like a pretty good line, especially with Ike Howard being a guy that’s new, fast, and possibly really only slots in on the top line given the fact that Pod Coulson Dry Cidle and Mongopani are looking to be your de facto second line OD to Camp Frederick R&H Seavoy. I think that one makes sense as well now with the addition of Ike Howard and especially giving R&H two guys that are going to go into the corners hard, going to go in and try and win battles and going to come up with puck more often than not. That will allow for a lot more offense out of a third line that at times last year was just a black hole in the Oilers lineup similar to the fourth line depending where you slotted guys in the Oilers lineup. So for the Oilers, obviously if you would have had Kane last year, the third line might not have been as much of a black hole. Now all of a sudden this year you’ve got Frederick down there and that should allow R&H to work his magic running his own line alongside Matt Seavoy. You kind of see this. I exactly see where Bob Staer is going. Yanmark, Henrik, Kapan, Lazar, Thomasek, we know those are the prime five candidates to bust camp on the bottom line for the Edmonton Oilers. Now, there’s something interesting there. The defense, I wouldn’t worry about the defense at all. You know, Steter and Emerson will kind of take their turns rotating in and out. And other than that, as long as everybody stays healthy, you’ve got it where it is. And this goalending is what it is as well. So, keep that in mind for at least right now, there are really no battles. It’s just again, Ike Howard’s got to win his job on the top line. So that’s where you just go out there and perform exactly to expectation and you’ll be there for him and for Matt Seavoy. You go out there and just, you know, prove that you belong and you’ll have a spot guaranteed on the third line. I think that much is obvious from the way Bob writes those lines. So what really comes down to in camp is a couple of things is the actual fourthline center battle this year. You’ve got Lazar, you’ve got Thomasek, you’ve got Henrik, you’ve got of course Noah Phelp, you’ve got even really a sneaky good camp from a healthy James Hamlin could really, really mess things up for the Edmonton Oilers at training camp. Again, I know you hear me every so often mention the name James Hamlin. There’s a dang reason, friends. Big fan of the guy. Big fan. Great, great guy. Great guy to have in Bakersfield, but would love to see him get some NHL time. And then of course, you know, the depth forwards with potential. So, not only if you don’t win the fourth line center battle, do you end up sticking around just simply because you have offensive upside, you have some speed, you have some size, you have some ability, and obviously for the Oilers, whatever they want to do on that bottom line to make it the most effective compared to the top nine, the new look top nine this year, um it’ll come down to the guys with the most capabilities in all facets of their game. And then 21 year olds in the top nine. This is where this is absolutely pivotal friends. The Oilers lost youth last year in summer obviously losing Broberg and Holloway. Instead now this year you trade a guy that was maybe two three years off to being an NHL full-timer who would essentially replace R&H that being Sam O’Reilly. Uh Ike Howard comes in and should immediately slot in in at least bare minimum your top six. and Matt Seavoy, who you traded Ryan Mloud for, who’s now making five million big bucks in Buffalo, slots in at 21 years old to slide in on your third line and produce. So, I like where the Oilers are going. I like the ability and the possibilities we have in this lineup. And it’s going to be exciting to see what the Oilers can truly do here over the next month, I guess it would be. Yeah, you know, it’s it’s the 12th here, so really the next month is probably where the Oilers will do the last bits of their work for the roster or they’ll just sh up the coaching staff and then similar to last year without the offer sheet thread, do the roster as well. One thing I will mention about uh Rodriguez being a goalie coach short list not being sane. I wonder if I don’t know what’s going on with AliE right now, but I wonder if Oie finds a way back to the organization here or just you know the Oilers choose to do something different because of not having Ollie here. So, I know it’s it’s a good news from me, from my perspective to have Sane on the short list just because he should have been up here. At the same time, you canned Jack Campbell from the NHL. Sane Rodriguez should have been promoted and Dustin Schwarz should have been fired, but that is what it is. We’ve now moved on all this time later and the Oilers, well, they’ll have to see what happens here over the next few weeks as Chris Nobel makes the final decisions on his coaching staff. Friends, thank you so much for being aboard. For right now though, I am up on out of here. Enjoy your Saturday. Unless there’s anything else that comes of the news today, I am up on out of here for the rest of the day.

The Edmonton Oilers have several new key pieces available when making next year’s lineup. While mulling over coaching staff decisions, Kris Knoblauch will have to keep that in mind. Let’s discuss a bit of the roster changes as well.
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