Edmonton Oilers Coaching Staff Changes

Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Kris Knoblauch will have a couple of new fellow employees behind the bench. With the roster seeing plenty of changes this offseason, you might as well also change the people who direct the roster on the ice. The newest members of the Edmonton Oilers coaching staff are…

Peter Aubrey – No other fanbase in hockey talks about goalie coaches more than this one, and it’s pretty hilarious. Dustin Schwartz, who’d held this position since 2014, is being replaced. With the inconsistencies that Oilers tandems tend to have, a change in this position was long overdue. Aubrey worked as a goalie coach for the Chicago Blackhawks between 2015 and 2023, knowing Stan Bowman well. He spent two years after that as an assistant coach for the NCAA’s Omaha Mavericks. He wasn’t in Chicago for their Cup wins, but Corey Crawford still put up good numbers in his last 5 NHL seasons while working with him. If Stuart Skinner and Calvin Pickard are Edmonton’s tandem again, we’ll find out if this is the change they need.

Conor Allen will be the team’s new skills coach. He was with USA Hockey’s National Under-17 team last season, and he’s also previously worked in a skills development role with the UCHL’s Sioux City Musketeers.

Paul MacFarland will be an assistant coach. He’s had NHL stints behind the bench with the Florida Panthers, Toronto Maple Leafs, and Seattle Kraken. Last season, he was head coaching the WHL’s Calgary Hitmen.

Noah Segall joins the Oilers as a video coach, has experience in video coordinating with Edmonton’s AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors.

Mark Stuart re-signs as assistant, but Paul Coffey will not be back behind the bench and will instead go back to the senior advisor role he had prior to this one.

Two straight Cup Final appearances are good, but the Oilers have become more predictable in their play at times, especially on the power play. Pairings on defense were also inconsistent, but kept getting more minutes together despite their struggles. Change and saves are necessary in order to ensure that the Finals loss eventually becomes a Finals win. I became an Oilers fan around the time of their 2006 Cup run. My Mother worked for Coffey at a car dealership he used to own in my home province of Ontario. I wasn’t an avid fan yet, but I was inching closer to fandom. These last two years didn’t come with the end result we all wanted, but it was cool to spend them cheering for the guy who started it all for me.