Another Candidate For The Oilers

Having won the Connor McDavid sweepstakes, along with numerous 1st draft picks who have underwhelmed, the Oilers are becoming the most interesting offseason story.

We previously discussed Mike Babcock’s emergence as a legitimate candidate.  And now we have Todd McLellan.  McLellan may be a more realistic option.  And some would say that he is the best available coach right now.  Time will tell, but this is getting interesting.

Puck Daddy had this to say:

Depending on what his former boss with the Detroit Red Wings decides, Todd McLellan could be the rock star of the NHL coaching free agent pool this offseason. Which is why it would be wise to snatch him up fast … which is why Peter Chiarelli met with the former San Jose Sharks coach in Prague.

Terry Jones of the Edmonton Sun reported, in a roundabout way, that the new Edmonton Oilers GM met with McLellan, who is currently coaching Team Canada in the IIHF world championships. Jones dropped that nugget after reporting that Chiarelli left Prague before Mike Babcock – currently of the Red Wings – arrived.

McLellan, you’ll recall, mutually uncoupled from the San Jose Sharks last month after seven season. He had already been in contact with the Oilers, speaking with president Bob Nicholson and former GM Craig MacTavish. This was reportedly the first time he met with Chiarelli.

We agree that he may be the rock star.

Today’s Slapshot added this:

McLellan is currently in the Czech Republic coaching the Canadian national team in the World Championship.

He spent seven seasons in San Jose and 2014-15 was the only time the team missed out on the playoffs during his reign. He guided the Sharks to back-to-back Western Conference Finals, so he knows what he’s doing. The way that the Sharks collapsed last season in the playoffs, being up 3-0 in games over the Los Angeles Kings and then losing 4-3, just crushed the team mentally and they never recovered from that. That’s the major reason why they missed out on the playoffs this time around.

Wilson put McLellan in a difficult position when he decided to give new contracts to both Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau. These two players have been the leaders for many years, but they have peaked and it would have been better to trade them or let them go to free agency and hand the team over to Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture.

I’m very interested to see how this plays out.

Photo courtesy of Lisa Gansky.