The Vegas Golden Knights withheld permission from the Edmonton Oilers to interview fired coach Bruce Cassidy, according to Victory+ insider Frank Seravalli. That would be a petty move by Vegas, Adam Proteau writes.
The Vegas Golden Knights have a well-earned reputation as being one of the most cutthroat teams in the NHL.
For the most part, we've never had any problem with Golden Knights GM Kelly McCrimmon making bold and pre-emptive moves to keep his team in the thick of things as they pursue the second Stanley Cup in franchise history.
However, the Golden Knights have reportedly withheld permission from their Pacific Division rival, the Edmonton Oilers, to interview fired coach Bruce Cassidy, according to Victory+ insider Frank Seravalli. Cassidy is still under contract with Vegas but is not working for them.
We don't know why the Golden Knights would turn down Edmonton's request to speak with Cassidy, whom McCrimmon fired on March 29, with only eight games remaining in the regular season.
But they better have a very good reason, because preventing a coach they don't even want working for them anymore from interviewing with another NHL team is not OK. In fact, it's a pretty ugly look in terms of optics.
When teams fire a coach who is under contract, they almost always grant permission to other teams interested in hiring that coach. Until such time that a reasonable reason comes out for the Golden Knights playing hardball with Cassidy, it feels petty and small to leave Cassidy in limbo while other teams fill their job openings.
Cassidy could come into Edmonton with his Cup-winning experience and deliver the results Oilers brass is looking for. If the Golden Knights think enough of Cassidy as a coach to deny another team the chance to hire him, Vegas shouldn't have fired him in the first place.
Frankly, given that Cassidy gave this Knights team the first and only Cup in franchise history, you'd think they'd be giving him more respect than this report suggests management has for him.
Coaches get fired every season, and you rarely, if ever, hear that the team that fired them is deliberately blocking their path back to working in hockey's top league again.
While the Golden Knights have cut or traded players they no longer believe they can win a championship with, you don't see a team hanging onto one of those players while refusing to let them continue to play with a different team. That's a no-no.
Once a team makes the choice to fire a coach, it should go without saying that they shouldn't stand in the way of that coach regaining employment with a different team. So the Golden Knights need to either grant permission, make it public why they withheld permission from the Oilers to interview Cassidy, release a statement saying they've never been approached by the Oilers about Cassidy, or deal with the criticism that's coming their way after Tuesday's report.
Now, this report doesn't look good on the Oilers if they're looking for a replacement for current coach Kris Knoblauch without first firing him. It no doubt can't feel good for Knoblauch to see these reports about Cassidy, but Edmonton GM Stan Bowman should give his coach the same chance to be hired by a different team rather than holding onto him until they decide on his future.
Most coaches go into their job knowing full well they could be fired at any time. However, coaches should expect to be treated fairly once a team chooses to go in a different coaching direction.
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