{"id":749755,"date":"2026-06-20T15:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/749755\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T15:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T15:48:14","slug":"serious-and-unserious-coaching-options-for-the-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/749755\/","title":{"rendered":"Serious and unserious coaching options for the Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Since the whole of the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> organization is living in an alternate universe wherein actions have no consequences and staffing decisions are made not with in-depth analysis but rather a firm handshake and a bullying story<\/a>, I decided to put together a list of potential coaching options for the team.These guys all have the winning pedigree of a certain (seemingly confirmed<\/a>) candidate named Mike Babcock, as well as a strong, no-nonsense demeanour. Are these real candidates or even real people? Maybe! Are they all better than what may be incoming? I think so.1. John Tortorella<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start with a perfect example of what this Oilers leadership group is looking for. He is firm and, at times, straight-up crazy and scary. He is a proven winner in this league as well as internationally. And his historically hard training camps would potentially finally cure this team\u2019s slow-start-itis. Most recently, of course, he took the Vegas Golden Knights to the Cup final. There is absolutely zero chance Vegas would have any problem at all with the Oilers reaching out to him. That would be weird and petty if they did.<\/p>\n

2. Scotty Bowman<\/p>\n

Why not?! He has the most wins all time as a head coach, his son is running the team, and he\u2019s humming along strong at 92 years old. Most importantly, he didn\u2019t have to go through a thorough investigation from the league and the player\u2019s association \u2014 not that that really seems to matter to this organization. Nonetheless, Scotty could do some damage with this team!<\/p>\n

3. Darryl Sutter<\/p>\n

Sutter\u2019s name has been floated around over the past few weeks, and while it is a continued trip to the \u201ccoached a million games and won a bunch a long time ago,\u201d well, he is definitely an option. Yeah, sure, he definitely treated some players poorly as he was on his way out in Calgary \u2013 Nazem Kadri and Jonathan Huberdeau to name a few \u2013 but that could have all been done in pre-service to the Oilers. Really crush a few franchise cornerstones to make the Battle of Alberta intensity disappear. This seems a little bit more on par with what the Oilers organization is looking for, real \u201cBiff from Back to the Future\u201d energy.<\/p>\n

\"EdmontonSergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

May 26, 2022; Calgary, Alberta, CAN; Calgary Flames head coach Darryl Sutter congratulates Edmonton Oilers players after win over the Calgary Flames in game five of the second round of the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Scotiabank Saddledome. Mandatory Credit: Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n

4. Samuel L. Jackson as Coach Carter<\/p>\n

Again, reality doesn\u2019t matter! It doesn\u2019t matter if future players won\u2019t come to Edmonton because of the current coaching approach, it doesn\u2019t matter that the incumbent has not won anything since 2013, and it doesn\u2019t matter that Samuel L. Jackson as Coach Carter is a basketball coach. Think about the respect he would instill in this team. Everyone calling him sir, getting their grades up before exams, Vasily Podkolzin stepping up to a post-game interview and reciting the lines from the famous Marianne Williamson poem, \u201cOur deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.\u201d I mean, come on! Chills!<\/p>\n

5. Anatoly Tarasov<\/p>\n

We all know the Father of Russian hockey. Three Olympic Golds for the Soviet Union in 64\u2019, 68\u2019 and \u201972. He mastered the art of blending the skill and intense aggressiveness of the Russian players and arguably pushed the sport of hockey forward as much as anyone in the history of the sport. Passed in 1995, sure, rest his soul, but he is exactly what this team is searching for. Once again, it doesn\u2019t seem to matter how bad or unrealistic the decision is, this management group is going to go for it, and boy howdy do you have to respect that!<\/p>\n

In the end, we are all staring down the barrel of a year ahead that is wrought with drama and spotlight and speculation and checking in on players\u2019 feelings. It is the type of distraction that this Oilers team should be trying to avoid as they try to achieve their goal that so many think they are destined for. A change-up was needed \u2014 I can get on board with that \u2014 but shifting towards someone who, at best, will spend the season questioning and changing the tactics and relationship management tools he has used throughout his career and, at worst, will not be changing them at all seems like a recipe for disaster. Godspeed, Mr. Babcock. We are all watching with little hope.<\/p>\n

PRESENTED BY THE DAILY FACEOFF FREE AGENCY SPECIAL\"\"<\/a>Daily Faceoff is your Free Agency Headquarters! Big moves. Breaking news. Instant analysis. Daily Faceoff is bringing the team together July 1st for a live Free Agency Special featuring Jeff Marek, Tyler Yaremchuk, Carter Hutton, and Dave Pagnotta. Tune in at noon ET on the Daily Faceoff YouTube Channel<\/a> and socials for full coverage as the NHL landscape changes. WATCH LIVE!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Since the whole of the Edmonton Oilers organization is living in an alternate universe wherein actions have no…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":749756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[433],"tags":[49,48,448,82],"class_list":["post-749755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/749756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}