The Edmonton Oilers have wasted no time swooshing checkmarks onto the team’s 2015 off-season to-do-list.
Win the draft lottery: Check. Give more power to Bob Nicholson and less to Kevin Lowe: Check; Swoosh! Hire Peter Chiarelli as the new general manager: Check. Hire a respectable and NHL-proven head coach: Check.
Any moment now the Oilers will announce ex-San Jose Sharks bench boss Todd McLellan as the franchise’s 14th head coach and the sixth coach to try his hand at the club since the 2009-10 season.
Who knows? They may be announcing his name behind that familiar draped table as you joyously read this article. Or maybe you’re reading this with similar enjoyment after the fact. Regardless of when they make the announcement or when you actually read this, McLellan is the man. But what about the man McLellan’s poised to replace, Todd Nelson?
A couple months ago, if you had asked me who I thought should coach the Oilers next season, I would have answered “Nelson.” He came in and made a huge difference with most of the young players on this Oilers team. He certainly made an immediate difference in the way the Oilers competed. In retrospect, however, my answer would have been a little premature, because coaches like McLellan were not available a couple months ago.
With all due respect to the other possible future head coaches, including coveted-coach Mike Babcock, McLellan seems to be the right choice at the right time for the Oilers. Indeed, McLellan just finished coaching team Canada and Oilers stars Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle at this year’s IIHF World Championship in Prague, Czech Republic, where Canada absolutely dominated their opponents and won gold for the first time since 2007. Plus, McLellan had an outstanding record of 311-163-66 over the past seven seasons with the Sharks, but failed to convert regular season success into much success in the playoffs.
Nelson, on the other hand, has put in his time with the Oilers organization, serving as the head coach of the Oilers American Hockey League affiliate Oklahoma City Barons for four-and-a-half seasons before taking over for the beleaguered Dallas Eakins as interim head coach of the Oilers halfway through the season. His record as the Oilers bench boss is nothing to brag about (17-25-9), but his brief tenure was a definite improvement and his record with the Barons (176-111-46) was more than respectable.
Several Oilers players improved as soon as Nelson took over. Most notably Hall, Nail Yakupov and Anton Lander bettered their play after the coaching change. It’s well documented that Yakupov finally began to play like a professional hockey player again while Hall, according to David Staples of the Edmonton Journal, improved his scoring chance plus-minus from 1.2 under Eakins to a more Hall-like 2.5 under Nelson. And Lander was given another chance at centre, surprisingly scoring some goals, playing some responsible hockey and gaining himself a fresh two-year contract.
For all of these reasons and more, including the Oilers improved powerplay, Nelson should remain behind the bench as an assistant coach alongside McLellan.
The Oilers will add another checkmark to their off-season to-do-list when they announce McLellan as the team’s next head coach. Hopefully they waste no time checking McLellan’s coaching staff off the list, too. And hopefully it’s Nelson’s name beside the checkmark for assistant coach.
Main Photo:
