Since taking over behind the bench on November 12, 2023, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/nhl-schedule-2025-26-travel-reduced-goal-scoring-fewer-penalties">Edmonton Oilers</a> head coach Kris Knoblauch has more combined regular-season and playoff wins than every coach in the NHL, except Paul Maurice.

Knoblauch and Maurice are tied with 123 wins, but it’s Maurice who has the upper hand where it counts most. His Panthers have beaten Knoblauch’s Oilers in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. Maurice ranks second all-time in NHL regular-season games coached at 1,930, while Knoblauch just wrapped up his second season and has only 151 regular-season games under his belt.
Maurice missed the playoffs his first three years as an NHL coach and didn&#8217;t win a playoff series until his seventh season. Maurice lost two Stanley Cup Finals before winning the Cup in his 26th year as a head coach. He&#8217;s a great example of perseverance in the coaching fraternity.
Knoblauch has no reason to feel ashamed for not winning. Disappointed, sure, but he&#8217;s had an incredible start to his NHL coaching career, and the Oilers will enter this season as one of, if not the favourite, in the Western Conference.
But success isn’t guaranteed, and Knoblauch is driven to take that final step and bring home the Stanley Cup.
His <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-craig-mactavish-discusses-hiring-nhl-coaching-staff">coaching staff</a> will look much different this season. Glen Gulutzan, Paul Coffey, Dustin Schwartz, and David Pelletier are all out. In their place: Mark Stuart will run the defence, Paul McFarland takes over the power play, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/one-on-one-peter-aubry-get-to-know-edmonton-oilers-new-goalie-coach">Peter Aubry</a> steps in as goalie coach, and Conor Allen joins as the new skills coach. Allen’s role, in particular, will be bigger than some expected. More on that below.
<div class="jetpack-video-wrapper"><iframe loading="lazy" title="The Jason Gregor Show - July 14th, 2025 - The Edmonton Oilers have made new coaching hires." width="1424" height="801" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ssJ7qagF1vo?start=4&#038;feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
I had Kris Knoblauch on my radio yesterday on <a class="text-accent" href="https://www.sports1440.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Sports 1440</a> and on the <a class="text-accent" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJ7qagF1vo&amp;t=4s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Oilersnation YouTube,</a> and we discussed many things, but one thing caught my attention: I asked Knoblauch about his new staff and how they might approach this season differently.
<blockquote>&#8220;The penalty kill is where we will have the biggest adjustments,&#8221; said Knoblauch. &#8220;As for a five-on-five play, we&#8217;re always looking at how we can get better, but overall, I think we&#8217;re going to have pretty much the same systems. It&#8217;s taken us to the Stanley Cup final twice, but there will be a little more emphasis on skill development to execute plays. We reduced one coach (three on the bench instead of four), but we added a more of a traditional skills coach. We will have a bit more focus on player development. We will have some young high prospects coming in, as you mentioned, with <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-head-coach-knoblauch-will-play-howard-savoie-special-teams">Savoie and Howard</a>, and we want to help those guys, but also help the veteran players. They&#8217;re always looking to improve their game. There are always skills that you can work on, and we wanted a guy who was completely focused on that skill development or skill enhancement that can help all our players.&#8221;</blockquote>
Allen is the new skills coach, and his role will be bigger than we&#8217;ve seen before in the Oilers organization. There will be more practices based mainly on skill development.
<blockquote>&#8220;We will have that, and we&#8217;ll probably break up our traditional practices with skill developments, maybe at the beginning of practice or at the end to break it up,&#8221; said Knoblauch.  &#8220;We&#8217;re very fortunate to have two ice sheets, so we can always do skills with a handful of players on one ice and then have them join our main practice immediately without losing any time with ice scrapes. We want to implement more of that this year. It&#8217;s something that&#8217;s very difficult to do in the NHL just because of the travel and the schedule and how many games you play, but I think it&#8217;s important.
&#8220;Our players spend so much time doing skill development over the summer, and then the regular season happens, and it&#8217;s (skill work) almost non-existent. I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s right. I think we should be incorporating more of that in the regular season. It is a great plan right now, and hopefully, we can execute it during the season,&#8221; said Knoblauch.</blockquote>
It is a great plan. It makes a lot of sense. I&#8217;ve often found it odd how much time the organization has put into player development — which focuses more on young, drafted players and prospects, and many of them never make it to the NHL — while teams didn&#8217;t have the same focus on skill development with NHL players. I asked Knoblauch why he felt it was the right time to make the change.
<blockquote>&#8220;I think once players get to the NHL, it&#8217;s almost as if their development&#8217;s done, they&#8217;ve made it to the highest level, and let&#8217;s just let them play,&#8221; said Knoblauch. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s right, and my time in junior hockey and in the American Hockey League, the emphasis was on development and getting these players better, and I think it&#8217;s important that we were doing that here. I think between my experience in the American Hockey League with Hartford, I thought we had a good program there with a lot of emphasis on player development, but also talking with Stan (Bowman), he had the exact same vision. So, it was really easy for us to work together and find a way for this to work. He and I went through the application process of finding good coaches to fill our entire bench and the skill development role, and we were very aligned on this position.&#8221;</blockquote>
Skill development practices are less taxing on players. And it can be very position-specific. Wingers can work on picking up pucks off the boards and making strong, smart plays in either the defensive or offensive zone. The forwards can work on quick touches in and around the net or tipping pucks, or quick, crisp give-and-gos. They could have sessions on edge work, making plays on their backhands, and not always focus on tactical drills. Defenceman can work on quick outlets, walking the blueline to create space, one-timers, and more. The options are endless, and not only will it sharpen their skills, but it will also likely lower the potential of being bored by running the same drills.
You can only break out so many times. Players like predictability and consistency, but if you have too much of it in practice, it can become tiresome. Knoblauch&#8217;s new approach should increase the &#8220;fun&#8221; factor but also improve their odds of burying more scoring chances. Last season at 5&#215;5, Edmonton was first in shots on goal, second in high danger scoring chances, 13th in goals scored, and 27th in shooting percentage at 7.95%. The first two rankings are great. But the last two? Not so much.
In 2024 at 5&#215;5, the Oilers were first in shots on goal and in high danger chances, third in goals scored, and 14th in SH%. Was last year a bit of bad luck? Possibly, but I&#8217;ve long argued that burying your chances is a skill. Hitting the pad or hitting the spot just above the pad to score is a difference of a few inches, and many factors lead to a player hitting, or missing, their spot (mainly time and space), but if you work on hitting those spots in practice, or getting the shot away half a second quicker, that could lead to more converted plays.
<a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/diving-into-the-biggest-changes-in-the-nhls-new-cba">The Oilers</a> are blessed with some highly skilled players, and keeping those skills sharp makes sense. I&#8217;m interested to see what skills the new Conor (Allen) will incorporate throughout the season.
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<h2>PRESENTED BY STAR MECHANICAL</h2>
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&nbsp;

Since taking over behind the bench on November 12, 2023, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/nhl-schedule-2025-26-travel-reduced-goal-scoring-fewer-penalties">Edmonton Oilers</a> head coach Kris Knoblauch has more combined regular-season and playoff wins than every coach in the NHL, except Paul Maurice.


Knoblauch and Maurice are tied with 123 wins, but it’s Maurice who has the upper hand where it counts most. His Panthers have beaten Knoblauch’s Oilers in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals. Maurice ranks second all-time in NHL regular-season games coached at 1,930, while Knoblauch just wrapped up his second season and has only 151 regular-season games under his belt.
Maurice missed the playoffs his first three years as an NHL coach and didn't win a playoff series until his seventh season. Maurice lost two Stanley Cup Finals before winning the Cup in his 26th year as a head coach. He's a great example of perseverance in the coaching fraternity.

Knoblauch has no reason to feel ashamed for not winning. Disappointed, sure, but he's had an incredible start to his NHL coaching career, and the Oilers will enter this season as one of, if not the favourite, in the Western Conference.
But success isn’t guaranteed, and Knoblauch is driven to take that final step and bring home the Stanley Cup.
His <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-craig-mactavish-discusses-hiring-nhl-coaching-staff">coaching staff</a> will look much different this season. Glen Gulutzan, Paul Coffey, Dustin Schwartz, and David Pelletier are all out. In their place: Mark Stuart will run the defence, Paul McFarland takes over the power play, <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/one-on-one-peter-aubry-get-to-know-edmonton-oilers-new-goalie-coach">Peter Aubry</a> steps in as goalie coach, and Conor Allen joins as the new skills coach. Allen’s role, in particular, will be bigger than some expected. More on that below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJ7qagF1vo&amp;t=4s

I had Kris Knoblauch on my radio yesterday on <a class="text-accent" href="https://www.sports1440.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Sports 1440</a> and on the <a class="text-accent" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssJ7qagF1vo&amp;t=4s" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Oilersnation YouTube,</a> and we discussed many things, but one thing caught my attention: I asked Knoblauch about his new staff and how they might approach this season differently.
<blockquote>"The penalty kill is where we will have the biggest adjustments," said Knoblauch. "As for a five-on-five play, we're always looking at how we can get better, but overall, I think we're going to have pretty much the same systems. It's taken us to the Stanley Cup final twice, but there will be a little more emphasis on skill development to execute plays. We reduced one coach (three on the bench instead of four), but we added a more of a traditional skills coach. We will have a bit more focus on player development. We will have some young high prospects coming in, as you mentioned, with <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/edmonton-oilers-head-coach-knoblauch-will-play-howard-savoie-special-teams">Savoie and Howard</a>, and we want to help those guys, but also help the veteran players. They're always looking to improve their game. There are always skills that you can work on, and we wanted a guy who was completely focused on that skill development or skill enhancement that can help all our players."</blockquote>
Allen is the new skills coach, and his role will be bigger than we've seen before in the Oilers organization. There will be more practices based mainly on skill development.
<blockquote>"We will have that, and we'll probably break up our traditional practices with skill developments, maybe at the beginning of practice or at the end to break it up," said Knoblauch.  "We're very fortunate to have two ice sheets, so we can always do skills with a handful of players on one ice and then have them join our main practice immediately without losing any time with ice scrapes. We want to implement more of that this year. It's something that's very difficult to do in the NHL just because of the travel and the schedule and how many games you play, but I think it's important.

"Our players spend so much time doing skill development over the summer, and then the regular season happens, and it's (skill work) almost non-existent. I don't think that's right. I think we should be incorporating more of that in the regular season. It is a great plan right now, and hopefully, we can execute it during the season," said Knoblauch.</blockquote>
It is a great plan. It makes a lot of sense. I've often found it odd how much time the organization has put into player development — which focuses more on young, drafted players and prospects, and many of them never make it to the NHL — while teams didn't have the same focus on skill development with NHL players. I asked Knoblauch why he felt it was the right time to make the change.
<blockquote>"I think once players get to the NHL, it's almost as if their development's done, they've made it to the highest level, and let's just let them play," said Knoblauch. "I don't think that's right, and my time in junior hockey and in the American Hockey League, the emphasis was on development and getting these players better, and I think it's important that we were doing that here. I think between my experience in the American Hockey League with Hartford, I thought we had a good program there with a lot of emphasis on player development, but also talking with Stan (Bowman), he had the exact same vision. So, it was really easy for us to work together and find a way for this to work. He and I went through the application process of finding good coaches to fill our entire bench and the skill development role, and we were very aligned on this position."</blockquote>
Skill development practices are less taxing on players. And it can be very position-specific. Wingers can work on picking up pucks off the boards and making strong, smart plays in either the defensive or offensive zone. The forwards can work on quick touches in and around the net or tipping pucks, or quick, crisp give-and-gos. They could have sessions on edge work, making plays on their backhands, and not always focus on tactical drills. Defenceman can work on quick outlets, walking the blueline to create space, one-timers, and more. The options are endless, and not only will it sharpen their skills, but it will also likely lower the potential of being bored by running the same drills.

You can only break out so many times. Players like predictability and consistency, but if you have too much of it in practice, it can become tiresome. Knoblauch's new approach should increase the "fun" factor but also improve their odds of burying more scoring chances. Last season at 5x5, Edmonton was first in shots on goal, second in high danger scoring chances, 13th in goals scored, and 27th in shooting percentage at 7.95%. The first two rankings are great. But the last two? Not so much.

In 2024 at 5x5, the Oilers were first in shots on goal and in high danger chances, third in goals scored, and 14th in SH%. Was last year a bit of bad luck? Possibly, but I've long argued that burying your chances is a skill. Hitting the pad or hitting the spot just above the pad to score is a difference of a few inches, and many factors lead to a player hitting, or missing, their spot (mainly time and space), but if you work on hitting those spots in practice, or getting the shot away half a second quicker, that could lead to more converted plays.

<a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/diving-into-the-biggest-changes-in-the-nhls-new-cba">The Oilers</a> are blessed with some highly skilled players, and keeping those skills sharp makes sense. I'm interested to see what skills the new Conor (Allen) will incorporate throughout the season.

<hr />

<h2>PRESENTED BY STAR MECHANICAL</h2>
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Star Mechanical is one of Edmonton’s biggest locally owned and operated plumbing and heating businesses. They have been working within the community for over 20 years, and many of the homes built in Edmonton over the last two decades have had their plumbing and heating systems installed by Star Mechanical.  Visit them at <a href="http://starmechanical.ca/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://starmechanical.ca&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1707492487512000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2mVs3WUkp8iUCZ0kJRe9lJ">starmechanical.ca</a> to schedule an appointment and let them help keep your home running smoothly.

&nbsp;

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