Jeff Jackson, president of hockey operations for the Edmonton Oilers, made a surprising statement regarding the hiring of the new head coach.
The Alberta club fired Jay Woodcroft on Sunday and hired Kris Knoblauch as his replacement. The latter coached Connor McDavid in junior hockey for the Erie Otters from 2012 to 2015.
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However, the Oilers apparently didn’t consult their star player before making this important change.
“We did not consult our players in this decision,” said Jackson, whose comments were reported by the website Daily Faceoff. They are here to play hockey. You don’t want to be involved in this type of decision. Connor and our other leaders had nothing to do with it.”
This is pretty special considering Jackson is McDavid’s former agent. Many even wonder if the Oilers captain isn’t a “coach killer.”
Since his National League debut in 2015–2016, the first pick of the 2015 auction worked under the command of Todd McLellan (2015 to 2018), Ken Hitchcock (2018–2019), Dave Tippett (2019 to 2022) and Woodcroft ( 2022 to 2023).