When Chris Knoblauch accepted his first NHL head coaching job in mid-November after nearly five seasons as an American Hockey League coach with the Hartford Wolfpack in the Rangers organization, he walked into an Edmonton Oilers locker room filled with some of the NHL’s biggest stars, including Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, only to find it messy.
The Oilers were one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup when the season began, but got off to a disastrous start with three wins, nine losses and one tie, leading to the firing of coach Jay Woodcroft.
Knoblock, who missed out on the Blueshirts managerial job twice during his time at Hartford, took over and Edmonton ultimately finished second in the Pacific Division with a record of 46 wins, 18 losses and five ties.
Now, Knoblock and the Oilers are four wins away from summiting hockey’s greatest mountain, Mount Everest, against the Florida Panthers, the team that beat his former employers in the other half of the NHL playoffs.
“I saw the team being very hard on themselves and very frustrated,” Knoblauch told The Canadian Press before the team beat the Stars in Sunday’s Western Conference final. “Things weren’t going well… The team was probably trying too hard. They were getting too carried away and not thinking straight.”
“When you try to do too much or everything, you end up doing someone else’s job and not doing your own job well. Everything falls apart.”
It certainly helps that he takes over a club that has not only made the playoffs the past four seasons, including the qualifying round of the 2020 bubble postseason, but also reached the conference finals just two years ago.
But Oilers general manager Ken Holland credited Knoblock with saving the 2023-24 season, according to ESPN.
Knoblock led the Wolfpack to 119 wins, 90 losses and 32 ties, and advanced to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs with one goal.
The Rangers were no doubt happy with his performance in the AHL, but they weren’t going to hand the team over to a first-year coach when they were in “win now” mode.
“I’m so happy for him,” Zach Jones told The Post in late December about Knoblock taking the NHL coaching job. “I knew it would come someday. I didn’t know when it would come, but I knew he’d be an NHL head coach someday. I’m really, really happy for him and his family.”
“I really liked him. I really enjoyed having him as my coach. I enjoyed it for almost three years. He taught me a lot and put me in a lot of good situations, so it was really fun playing for him.”
