Oilers refused to wait on Cassidy and the new direction makes scary amounts of sense
Edmonton Oilers GM Stan Bowman is running a coaching search that may stretch well past expectations, according to insider Bob Stauffer.
Stauffer posted Tuesday morning that nothing is close to imminent, and that Bowman could interview more than one or two candidates who have already won the Cup.
The bar is the bar. Bowman isn't fishing for résumés. He wants a coach who's already lifted the trophy and knows the weight of it.
That filter shrinks the pool fast. And it tells you exactly what kind of pressure the next bench boss in Edmonton is walking into from day one.
Stauffer also dropped one more line worth reading twice. The general consensus, he wrote, is that Bruce Cassidy is the best head coach not currently behind an NHL bench.
That's a real signal. Cassidy is sitting on a Cup ring from Vegas and a long track record of getting more out of rosters than they probably deserved.
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Why the Oilers finished 14th overall with this roster
The numbers behind this search are what make it sting. Edmonton went 41-30-11 for 93 points, ranked 14th overall, second in the Pacific.
A team with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl finishing outside the top ten is not a number you bury. It's the whole reason Bowman is making calls.
The road work tells part of the story. The Oilers went 19-16-6 away from Rogers Place, never finding the consistency a contender needs over 41 nights on the road.
Goal differential of plus-13 in a year with that top end? That's the kind of stat a new head coach gets hired to fix. Loudly.
The Oilers closed the schedule April 16 with a 6-1 win over Vancouver. A nice note to end on, sure, but cosmetic given where this team expected to be playing in May.
So what does Bowman actually do here? Move fast and grab the obvious name, or interview a long list and risk losing Cassidy to someone bolder?
If Cassidy is truly the consensus best available, every other front office in waiting just got the memo too. Edmonton doesn't get to drag this out forever.
The window with McDavid is the window. Every offseason that gets spent searching is an offseason that doesn't get spent winning.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 18, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Zachary Bolduc | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Rasmus Dahlin | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Phillip Danault | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jordan Greenway | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alex Newhook | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Kaiden Guhle | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Beck Malenstyn | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ryan McLeod | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Owen Power | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mattias Samuelsson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Nick Suzuki | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Alexandre Texier | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zach Benson | - | - | - | |
| Bowen Byram | - | - | - | |
| Cole Caufield | - | - | - | |
| Kirby Dach | - | - | - | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||