Breaking: Oilers fire head coach Todd McLellan, replace him with NHL legend!

Wow! Who saw this coming!?

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Breaking: Oilers fire head coach Todd McLellan, replace him with NHL legend!
Zuma Press

The Edmonton Oilers have reportedly fired head coach Todd McLellan and have replaced him with legendary coach Ken Hitchcock.

This according to TSN insider Darren Dreger.




Details to come.

UPDATE: The Oilers have officially confirmed the news. TMac out. Hitch in. Crazy!




Now that it's official, let the post mortem of the Todd McLellan Era begin. The former San Jose Sharks head coach arrived in Edmonton just weeks after the team selected future superstar Connor McDavid first overall. Since then, the Oilers have just one playoff appearance to speak for. Clearly that's not good enough when you boast the most skilled and talented player in all of hockey. With the Oilers struggling out of the gate yet again this season, the writing was on the wall for McLellan.

To be fair to McLellan however, aside from McDavid he didn't exactly have a strong roster of players under his tutelage. Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli effectively traded stars like Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle for spare parts while signing players like Milan Lucic and Kris Russell to over inflated free agent contracts. Suffice it to say, a lot of McLellan's failings in Edmonton stem from the moves made by his GM. You can bet that the Oilers faithful will be calling for Chiarelli's head on a platter, as well.

As for Hitchcock, the hard nosed, no nonsense coach was dismissed by the Dallas Stars after missing the post season last year and spent the previous six seasons with the St. Louis Blues. During his tenure with the Blues, the team NEVER missed the post season. In fact, in his 22 year NHL coaching career, Hitchcock has missed the playoffs just three times. Here's hoping he can work a bit of that magic with the Oilers.