If you’re wondering how far back Darnell Nurse goes with Kris Knoblauch, it’s 10 years, because Nurse was playing junior for Sheldon Keefe’s Soo Greyhounds in the 2015 OHL playoffs while Knoblauch was on the rival Erie Otters bench.

Nurse barely knew Knoblauch then, but he’s got a very good book on him now after Knoblauch, the 18th Oilers NHL head coach, just got that three-year extension. He’s a big fan, with Knoblauch the fifth coach Nurse has played for since the fall of 2015 — Todd McLellan (now in Detroit), Ken Hitchcock (a coaching adviser with St. Louis), Dave Tippett (a coaching adviser with Seattle) and Jay Woodcroft (Joel Quenneville’s Anaheim assistant) before the current head man.

What you see is what you get from Knoblauch.

“It’s great to see him around for so long. He’s brought a lot to our group, especially the calm and poise in high-pressure situations,” said Nurse. “As a player you always know where you’re at with him. He’s always bringing positive energy and emotions to the rink.”

Knoblauch runs a very good bench. He’s Mr. Stoic back there.

He’s the farthest thing from rant or rave.

He learned some valuable coaching lessons in that regard, he says, from his days as a high-scoring forward with U of Alberta Golden Bears when Rob Daum, who was an Oilers assistant at one time and also coached their farm team, ran the Bears.

“Rob was always calm, composed and organized. He had a teacher’s mentality. He went to school to become one and I don’t think he ever was, but he treated his hockey team like a classroom,” said Knoblauch.

“He was always teaching us to be better. I had a lot of respect for Rob.”

Daum coached the Bears to three national championships and has been a longtime coach in Austria.

Knoblauch has coached 151 Oilers games. Longest tenure: Hall of Famer Glen Sather (762 games). Shortest: Bryan Watson (18 games). Knoblauch is ninth on the NHL list with his 151 games. In case you’re wondering, Craig MacTavish was the last Oilers head coach to get an extension, back in 2006 when Kevin Lowe was the team GM. MacTavish, who first started coaching the Oilers in 2001, got a four-year extension in ‘06. He also got one of three years, starting in 2003.

SHERWOOD PARK PROUD

Lost in the Oilers final pre-season overtime setback to the Canucks was the strong game by Sherwood Park’s Braeden Cootes, Vancouver’s first-round pick in June. Cootes could make the Canucks roster to start the season, at least for nine games before they decide whether to keep him or send the centre back to Seattle Thunderbirds. Cootes played Friday with Evander Kane and Jonathan Lekkerimaki, who had two goals.

If Cootes, who set up the first Lekkerimaki goal on Calvin Pickard, makes the opening-night Vancouver roster he’ll be the first 18-year-old to do so with the Canucks since Petr Nedved in 1990.

“Cootes is a gamer, plays with fire, which I love,” Oil Kings’ GM Kirt Hill said just before the June draft, seconding the opinion of a longtime NHL team amateur scout.

“He’s fearless,” said the scout, figuring some NHL teams were sleeping on the kid.

“His best traits? His hockey sense and his drive.”

Here’s a prediction: if the six-foot, 183-pound Cootes doesn’t stick with the Canucks past the nine games and returns to his junior team in Seattle, at the WHL trade deadline next January, Hill will try to trade some bantam draft picks to acquire the son of mum Julie, a nurse, and dad Rob, an insurance broker. The Oil Kings have won four of their first five WHL games.

This ‘n that: The general feeling is waiver-exempt Oilers forward David Tomasek will be sent down in a paper transaction for cap operating reasons before being back for the opening-night roster. They would bury $1.15 million of Tomasek’s $1.2 million salary, with the difference on their NHL cap … They’ll likely be waiving winger Max Jones Sunday, if doctors say he’s healthy after getting hurt in his own pre-season game in Winnipeg, and maybe another player for their opening-season roster cap (Noah Philp, Curtis Lazar or Troy Stecher). Stecher is the perfect No. 6 or 7, never-a-complaint defenceman and he played more than 20 minutes in Vancouver Friday with partner Darnell Nurse, so it’s hard to make a case for him being exposed. Lazar didn’t dress in Vancouver but he’s versatile and he’s won close to 50 per cent of his almost 3,000 NHL draws, a plus for a head coach. Philp, who played against the Canucks, has had a good camp with four pre-season points, but has to get better on faceoffs as a right-shot option. One thing maybe in his favour: he’s three years younger than Lazar … Tomasek, who could centre the third line here and will be a first-unit net-front, also a shooter on the power play, will be recalled next week and Zach Hyman will go on LTIR … Jones, who came to the Oilers from the Bruins in the Trent Frederic trade, got into 19 Oilers league games after the trade but he didn’t play in any of the 22 in the playoffs. He’s big, a hard-worker and aggressive, but there’s no room at the inn for him here. His one-way $1 million contract will be buried … Recently acquired goalie Connor Ingram is practising in Bakersfield but won’t be playing either exhibition game this weekend. His last action was in February for Utah against the Kings in Los Angeles, before he went into the NHL’s Player Assistance Program. The farm squad still has five goalies at their camp — Ingram and Matt Tomkins, who will be the AHL tandem, with Samuel Jonsson, Nathaniel Day and Connor Ungar, skating after off-season surgery, in the mix for two spots in ECHL Fort Wayne … As it stands today, Kailer Yamamoto is Utah’s LW on their fourth line off their training camp but the former Oilers winger might still go on waivers Sunday … Four former Oilers farmhands — Phil Kemp (Pittsburgh), Raphael Lavoie (Vegas) Lane Pederson (Philadelphia) and Ben Gleason (Minnesota) — all cleared waivers recently and are off to the AHL … Oilers 2025 seventh-round draft forward Aidin Park scored in his first NCAA game with University of Michigan. He’s on their fourth line, for now … Oilers draft goalie Daniel Salonen, 19, has played the bulk of the games for Finnish Liiga Luuko Rauma but with lukewarm results — a 2.94 goals against average and, .859 save percentage. His backup is Antti Raanta … Oilers’ 2024 second-round pick Eemil Vinni, also 19 and with back issues the last while, remains in the Mestis, the league below the Liiga … Jesse Puljujarvi (Geneva) is third in Swiss League scoring and ex Bako forward Drake Caggiula (Lausanne) is seventh in the early going.