Oilers fire Kris Knoblauch as coach, source confirms

Despite making back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025, the Edmonton Oilers have fired coach Kris Knoblauch, a source confirmed to ESPN on Thursday.

Knoblauch had signed a three-year extension with the Oilers in October that was set to start with the 2026-27 season and run by 2028-29.

But the Oilers, who had preseason title expectations, have been a median staff all through 2025-26. The warmth turned up beneath Knoblauch when famous person captain Connor McDavid effusively expressed his admiration in March for Tampa Bay Lightning bench boss Jon Cooper, who coached McDavid on the 4 Nations Faceoff and Olympic Games in Milan.

The sentiment behind McDavid’s feedback appeared to counsel a sure dissatisfaction with Knoblauch, though McDavid later mentioned he was “not taking shots.”

The Oilers regrouped and went 12-6-3 over March and April to complete in second place within the Pacific Division earlier than they have been eradicated by the Anaheim Ducks in six video games within the first spherical of the playoffs.

TSN first reported on Knoblauch’s firing.

Knoblauch was a shock rent by the Oilers in November 2023, poached from his place as head coach of the American Hockey League’s Hartford Wolfpack to interchange Jay Woodcroft 13 video games right into a disastrous begin to Edmonton’s season.

In his first NHL head teaching gig, Knoblauch instantly righted the ship, taking the Oilers from bottom-feeders to a Stanley Cup Final. Edmonton was again within the Final once more in 2025 however misplaced, as they’d in 2024, to the Florida Panthers.

Information from ESPN’s Emily Kaplan and Kristen Shilton was used on this report.