Oilers Stand to Benefit from Winning Culture Under Ex-Hartford Wolf Pack Bench Boss Kris Knoblauch

Newly minted Oilers Head Coach Kris Knoblauch has tasted success at multiple leagues and levels across the game of hockey.

What have you done for me lately is a cruel sentiment shared by many in the sports world. The good ol' hockey game is not exempt from such notions. 

Despite a 79-41-13 record with the Oilers, including a conference finals bid in 2021-22, Jay Woodcroft was shown the door following a start to the season that sparked fires of debate across Oil Country. Was the heir apparent to the Stanley Cup claim for Canada real or an apparition of our fantasies?

Regardless of whether or not Woodcroft deserved his unceremonious exit from Edmonton, the Oilers have found a worthy successor in former Hartford Wolf Pack bench boss Kris Knoblauch. 

The 166th overall selection of the New York Islanders in 1997, Knoblauch found varying levels of success as a player across the WHL, CWUAA, and CHL before his retirement in 2006. 

It was behind the bench where the Saskatchewan native found his calling, beginning his coaching career as an assistant with the Price Albert Raiders before transitioning to a head coaching role with the Kootenay Ice, winning the Ed Chynoweth Cup during his first season as bench boss following a 46-21-1-4 regular season record.

With the Erie Otters of the OHL, the hockey world began to take notice of Knoblauch. 

Finishing his tenure with the club with a sparkling .768 win record (204-58-7-3), the Otters won the J. Ross Robertson Cup in 2016-17, falling in the finals two years prior. In his tenure in Erie, Knoblauch coached future NHLers Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome, and, ironically, Connor McDavid.

Knoblauch would join the Philadelphia Flyers coaching staff as an assistant in 2017-18 and 2018-19 during lean years for the club, before moving to the American Hockey League in the summer of 2019 to run the bench of Rangers affiliate Hartford Wolf Pack. 

During his run with the club, the Wolfpack picked up 255 points in 230 games, finishing with a 112-87-37 record, reaching the third round of the Calder Cup finals in 2022-23 before bowing out to eventual league champion Hershey Bears. 

He would coach in the National Hockey League on an interim basis when Rangers head David Quinn landed on the COVID list in March of 2021, debuting with a dominant 9-0 victory over his former home in Philadelphia, leading the team to four of six possible wins in relief duty. 

For an Oilers squad clearly stamped with a mandate that losing is no longer optional, Kris Knoblauch brings a pedigree of success, from OHL to the AHL - and in limited sample size, the NHL - to an organization desperate to live up to sky-high expectations.