The Edmonton Oilers are headed in a new direction under general manager and president of hockey operations Ken Holland. Now we know that at least one other tenured front office executive won’t be sticking around, as Craig MacTavish has left the team for the KHL. MacTavish was named head coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl today, signing a two-year deal with the team.
MacTavish, 60, has been with the Oilers in one role or another for the last two decades, serving as head coach, general manager and senior vice president of hockey operations at different times. The KHL will be an entirely unfamiliar experience, especially given that his last coaching role came back in 2012. MacTavish will be following in the footsteps of several other former NHL coaches like Mike Keenan and Bob Hartley who have found success overseas, and joining a team with some familiar names including former Edmonton forward Anton Lander.
For the Oilers and specifically their AHL affiliate the Bakersfield Condors, this means more changes in the front office as Holland takes over. Edmonton has been criticized in the past for being an “old boys club” made up of former Oilers players, but if MacTavish’s exit is any indication things are going to change on that front.
Hopefully for Edmonton fans this is the first step of Kenny cleaning house
*IF* Holland has been given Carte Blanche to purge the OBC, it seems as if it will either be MUCH better or MUCH worse. Even though you could argue it can’t get much worse than it is now. Oh, yes, it can. Both 97 & 29 could demand out in a year or two, and there are no NHL fans outside of Edmonton that want to see Edmonton continuously winning the draft lottery every year. Edmonton fans have more weight in determining the financial health of the team. More so than any other team in the league. Also, if Kenny was *coerced* into those bad Detroit contracts by “The Family” (for the failed attempt at keeping the playoff streak alive), then he may be able to get rid of some of Edmonton’s boat anchors sooner rather than later. Problem is, in the salary cap era, sellers rarely have any leverage, so it will typically involve paying to get rid of a player and then some. Gotta wait and see on this one…
The cap on every team is a mess. It would all change if one team packaged all of their pics and all of their bad deals and traded them. Think about it.
The players did this to themselves. Having a buyout count against the cap so they can’t pay others in their own union. Who would do that? Greed.
MacTavish heading to Russia is the best thing for the Oilers, the NHL and North American hockey in general. If we’re lucky, he’ll take Lowe with him.