Two insiders linked former Oilers coach Todd McLellan to a new NHL team.

Former Oilers head coach will get another shot.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Two insiders linked former Oilers coach Todd McLellan to a new NHL team.
Carl Sandin/Bildbyran/Zuma

The Edmonton Oilers are coming off the heels of a pretty poor season for their organization and one of the early victims of that poor performance was former Edmonton Oilers head coach Todd McLellan. McLellan was fired all the way back in November of 2018 by then general manager Peter Chiarelli although Chiarelli himself would go on to be fired by the organization later in the season.

The fallout from being fired was a mixed bad for McLellan with many quick to point the finger at an easy scapegoat, while others like myself continued to point the finger squarely at the now former Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli. Say what you will about McLellan as a head coach the team that he was handed looked very different than the one that he had when he signed on for the job, and that was thanks in large part to catastrophic trades from Chiarelli. The trade of future MVP Taylor Hall for defenseman Adam Larsson was particularly egregious and some feel that McLellan was truly never given a competitive roster to work with during his time in Edmonton.

Well it seems like there are other teams in the National Hockey League that also feel this way and it sounds like McLellan will not be without a job for very long at all. There are now two very strong sources reporting that Todd McLellan is now being connected to another NHL team and that in fact he may be their top choice for their next head coach.

First TSN National Hockey League insider Pierre LeBrun reported that the Los Angeles Kings organization have contacted the Edmonton Oilers to ask for permission to speak with McLellan. Now that doesn't really mean all that much, plenty of teams may have contacted the Oilers for a chance to speak to McLellan, it could just be the Kings' doing their due diligence. That being said though there is another source who has been much more definitive than LeBrun.

Los Angeles Kings insider Dennis Bernstein of The Fourth Period is reporting that "significant negotiations" are already taking place between McLellan and the Kings, although he does admit that there are other teams with interest in McLellan. Bernstein also added that although nothing is imminent, McLellan is the organizations top choice as their next head choice.

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