Report: Not their first choice, but Oilers forced to hire Hitchcock

In case you missed it, the Edmonton Oilers officially fired head coach Todd McLellan earlier today and replaced him with legendary NHL head coach Ken Hitchcock. 

The Oilers got off to yet another sluggish start this season and are at serious risk of missing out on the playoffs once again following a 9-10-1 start in their first 20 games. Suffice it to say, the writing was on the wall for McLellan given the team’s performance, or lack thereof, the past three weeks. 

As for Hitchcock, there’s no denying his track record. The third winningest coach in NHL history arrives in his hometown with history of delivering his teams to the post season. The hard nosed, no nonsense coach was dismissed by the Dallas Stars this past offseason 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.

The thing is though… according to a report from Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, Hitchcock wasn’t Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli’s first choice… he was merely the only candidate who would agree to a short-term commitment.

Check it out:

Check out this quote from Spector’s column:

Hitchcock’s contract goes through the end of this season, then both sides will re-evaluate. With the GM in limbo, there isn’t another established coach out there who would sign a three-or five-year deal, not knowing who their boss might be next year. And there is only one coach of this pedigree who does one-year deals — and that’s Hitchcock. It behooves the organization not to be tied to a coach long term if the possibility exists that a playoff miss could cost Chiarelli his job.

Ouch… so the team could have had former Chicago Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville but because no one expects Chiarelli to be around for the long haul, they were forced to hire Hitch? Sounds like the Oilers brass operating as per usual…

Finally... how does this quote from Chiarelli's informal press conference make you feel, Oilers fans?

Chiarelli: “I’m certainly not absolving myself of any responsibility on the player personnel and this isn’t just an indictment of Todd or the players. This is a collective thing. It’s our job to get to the playoffs. We owe it to our fans and I felt this was the right move for it”

Absolutely INFURIATING!