Ranking Edmonton Oilers Coaches of the Connor McDavid Era – The Hockey Writers – Edmonton Oilers

The Edmonton Oilers are searching for a new head coach after relieving Kris Knoblauch of his duties. Knoblauch had served as Oilers head coach since November 2023.

Coaching instability has become an unfortunate hallmark of the Oilers, who have had 10 different bench bosses over the last 17 seasons. The average tenure of an Edmonton head coach during this span has been just 132.3 regular season games.

Edmonton’s next hire will be the sixth head coach for superstar centre Connor McDavid since he was drafted first overall by the Oilers in 2015. These coaches have achieved varying degrees of success, but none have been able to deliver a Stanley Cup to Edmonton. Here’s a countdown ranking the five individuals who have coached McDavid with the Oilers:

5) Ken Hitchcock

26-28-8 regular season record, 0 playoff series wins

Ken Hitchcock had the shortest tenure of any coach during the McDavid era and is the only bench boss to not reach the NHL postseason with McDavid on his roster.

Hitchcock was hired by Edmonton general manager (GM) Peter Chiarelli on Nov. 20, 2018, replacing Todd McLellan, who Chiarelli fired after the Oilers had dropped six of seven games to fall to 9-10-1. One of the winningest bench bosses in NHL history, Hitchcock had most recently served as head coach of the Dallas Stars in 2017-18.

At the time of the coaching change, the Oilers were only three points out of a playoff spot, and with more than three-quarters of their schedule remaining, hopes were high that the accomplished Hitchcock could yet lead Edmonton on a run to the postseason.

But the Oilers had virtually the same point percentage the rest of the way, going 26-28-8 under Hitchcock to end the season with a record of 35-38-9. After finishing with the second-fewest points in the Western Conference, 11 points out of the playoffs, Edmonton parted ways with Hitchcock.

4) Dave Tippett

95-62-14 regular season record, 0 playoff series wins

After succeeding Hitchcock as Edmonton’s bench boss, Dave Tippett guided the Oilers through one of the most unusual and challenging times in NHL history, as his tenure coincided with the three NHL seasons that were affected in some form or another by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tippett had the Oilers in contention to finish atop the 2019-20 Pacific Division standings, sitting just three points back of the division-leading Vegas Golden Knights with 11 games to play when the league was shut down on March 12, 2020. Once play resumed nearly six months later, with the NHL going straight into the postseason, the Oilers were upset by the Chicago Blackhawks in the qualifying round of the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

The Oilers had another strong regular season in 2020-21, finishing second in the North Division with a record of 35-19-2 over the shortened 56-game schedule. But once again, Edmonton flamed out in the playoffs, getting swept by the lower-seeded Winnipeg Jets in the first round.

While Tippett survived that second straight postseason meltdown, he didn’t make it through another regular season. On Feb. 10, 2022, he was fired by Edmonton general manager Ken Holland after the Oilers had gone 7-13-3 following a 16-5-0 start.

3) Todd McLellan

123-119-24 regular season record, one playoff series win

Todd McLellan was McDavid’s first NHL coach and held that position longer than anyone else has during the McDavid era in Edmonton.

McLellan went through the growing pains of McDavid’s rookie season, 2015-16, when Edmonton finished with the second-fewest points in the NHL. But in Year 2, McLellan coached Edmonton to the playoffs for the first time in 11 years. The Oilers knocked off the San Jose Sharks in the first round of the 2017 postseason, before losing in seven games to the Anaheim Ducks in an unforgettable second round series. McLellan’s work guiding the young Oilers was widely praised, and he was named a finalist for the 2016-17 Jack Adams Award.

After their playoff breakthrough, the Oilers were expected to ascend to the top of the standings in 2017-18. That, however, didn’t happen. Edmonton started the season slow, winning just three of its first 11 games, and never got on track, ultimately finishing 17 points out of the playoffs with an extremely disappointing 36-40-6 record.

Edmonton’s underwhelming 2017-18 season left McLellan on thin ice, and after the Oilers stumbled early in their 2018-19 season, Chiarelli decided to fire the coach.

2) Jay Woodcroft

79-41-13 regular season record, three playoff series wins

Hired to replace Tippett, Jay Woodcroft took over a sputtering Oilers team with just two and a half months remaining in the 2021-22 regular season, tasked with turning things around. He did that, and then some.

After Woodcroft stepped behind the bench, the Oilers went 26-9-3 over their final 38 games to finish the season with the second-best record in the Pacific Division. In the playoffs, Edmonton defeated the Los Angeles Kings in Round 1 and knocked off the Calgary Flames in the second round to advance to the Western Conference Final. While they were ultimately swept by the Colorado Avalanche, the pair of series victories represented Edmonton’s longest postseason run in 16 years.

In Woodcroft’s first full season, 2022-23, the Oilers again finished second in their division and defeated Los Angeles in Round 1 before being eliminated by the Vegas Golden Knights in the second round.

But while he was the first coach to lead Edmonton past Round 1 of the playoffs in consecutive years since Ron Low in 1997 and 1998, a disastrous start to the 2023-24 season would cost Woodcroft his job. He was fired after Edmonton won just three of its first 13 games and endured two separate four-game losing streaks in a span of three weeks.

1) Kris Knoblauch

135-77-21 regular season record, six playoff series wins

When Knoblauch replaced Woodcroft on Nov. 12, 2023, the Oilers had the second-worst record in the NHL and were eight points out of a playoff spot. What followed was one of the great turnarounds ever in hockey.

From Nov. 24, 2023, to Dec. 12, 2023, the Oilers won eight consecutive games. Then Edmonton reeled off a franchise record 16 straight wins from Dec. 21, 2023, to Jan. 27, 2024. By season’s end, the Oilers had climbed to second place in the Pacific Division. And they were just getting started.

Edmonton made a spectacular postseason run all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, before falling just short against the Florida Panthers. In the process, the Oilers became the first team to win an NHL conference championship after having less than four wins through their first 13 games.

The Oilers returned to the Stanley Cup Final in 2025, but once again lost to Florida, this time in six games.

After two straight Stanley Cup Final appearances, the Oilers faced sky-high objectives in 2025-26, but never came close to meeting them. Edmonton totalled 93 points, its lowest point percentage since 2018-19, and was eliminated in Round 1 by the Anaheim Ducks, its earliest playoff exit since 2020-21. Knoblauch was let go on May 14.

Whoever Oilers GM Stan Bowman hires next, the expectation is that the new coach will finally lead McDavid and his teammates to the Stanley Cup. If they succeed, they’ll be the new No. 1 on the list. But anything short of that will be a failure.