Hitchcock comments on his future as a head coach.

The Edmonton Oilers are currently staring at a six point deficit in the standings for the final playoff spot in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs and with just 7 games remaining on the schedule fans and pundits have already begun to look towards the future.

The Oilers simply did not have the talent required to compete this season thanks in large part to the efforts of former Edmonton Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli, but the hope is that will change come next season. The Oilers by then will have already hired and appointed a new general manager to the position currently occupied by interim Oilers general manager Keith Gretzky and that will likely largely dictate the direction the Oilers move in next season.

That however leaves open the question of what will happen with current Edmonton Oilers head coach Ken Hitchcock, a man who was retired as a head coach last season but now appears to be ready to keep going. Terry Jones had a chance to catch up with Hitchcock and ask him about the future and it seems clear that the veteran head coach would like to remain behind the Oilers bench.

“That’s hard for me to say. It’s somebody else’s ball game,” he said of the new head of hockey operations and general manager to be named well after the Oilers complete their regular season. “I can just tell you what I did this year, I wouldn’t change this for the world. This opportunity has been fantastic. And I’m so happy and lucky that I got this.”

Hitchcock touched on the fact that he has never before coached in a rabid hockey market like Edmonton and although that could scare certainly personalities away it seems to be something that Hitchock has well and truly embraced.

“First of all, this has been the best experience of my life," said Hitchock as per the Edmonton Journal. “I mean that sincerely. To be able to coach in a market like this where it means so much has been just an unbelievable experience.

“I’ve spent my entire NHL coaching career in the U.S. To realize how much it means to everybody, I feel real lucky, to be honest with you, to have this chance to do this.

“It’s also my first time where people are not so much fans as analysts. That’s an environment in the NHL that I’ve never seen.”

Whether or not that becomes a reality will likely depend on who the Oilers hire to take over as their next general manager.