2 candidates remain, but one coach is now leading the Oilers race
Chris Johnston put Craig Berube below Peter Laviolette for the Oilers coaching job, and Stan Bowman won't love hearing it on a Tuesday morning.
That's the kind of line a GM doesn't want floating around with the chair behind his bench still empty.
Edmonton finished 41-30-11 for 93 points. Fourteenth overall. Second in the Pacific. Not the profile of a team that can afford to get the next hire wrong.
The Oilers closed strong, going 6-2-2 in their last ten and hammering Vancouver 6-1 in the final tune-up. The pieces are there. The voice isn't.
Now Johnston, one of the most plugged-in voices in the country, is publicly stacking the board in a way that doesn't flatter Berube.
Berube has a Stanley Cup ring. He's coached deep playoff hockey. And a respected insider still has him behind Laviolette on the depth chart for this specific opening.
Why does that matter? Because perception shapes leverage, and leverage shapes who actually signs the deal.
The Stan Bowman problem nobody wants to say out loud
Bowman was hired on July 24, 2024, and he inherits a roster built to win now. The window doesn't care about his learning curve.
Hiring Laviolette would be the safer optics play. A veteran name, a long track record, a known structure. Easy to sell to a market that has run out of patience.
Hiring Berube would be louder. He'd come in heavy on accountability and physical identity, which sounds great in June and bruises egos by December.
Neither is a perfect fit. Picking the wrong one with this Edmonton roster is the closest thing this league has to walking a tightrope in skates.
And there's the part Johnston didn't say out loud. If Berube is the second choice, what happens when Laviolette says no?
The Oilers don't have the luxury of a long search. Free agency is coming. Pro scouting meetings are happening. Players talk.
Whoever Bowman picks will inherit a top-six built around elite talent and a goaltending picture that still has questions.
That's a job description that should attract every available name in hockey. Instead, the league is busy ranking the candidates in public.
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YESTERDAY
MAY 25, 2026
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| G | A | PTS | ||
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Taylor Hall | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Lane Hutson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Michael Matheson | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Andrei Svechnikov | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Jackson Blake | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Cole Caufield | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Ivan Demidov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Jake Evans | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Mark Jankowski | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jarvis | - | 1 | 1 | |
| K'Andre Miller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Eric Robinson | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Sebastian Aho | - | - | - | |
| Frederik Andersen | - | - | - | |
| Josh Anderson | - | - | - | |
| Zachary Bolduc | - | - | - | |
| Alexandre Carrier | - | - | - | |
| William Carrier | - | - | - | |
| Jalen Chatfield | - | - | - | |
| COMPLETE STATS | ||||