The Sheet with Jeff Marek - On the Sheet: Tyler Yaremchuk on the Oilers Firing Kris Knoblauch, Bruce Cassidy, and more

Episode Date: May 14, 2026

Tyler Yaremchuk joins to discuss the Edmonton Oilers firing Kris Knoblauch, the Bruce Cassidy controversy, and more.#TheSheet #JeffMarek #GregWyshynski #MvsW #NHL #StanleyCupPlayoffs #ColoradoAvalanche #MinnesotaWild #BuffaloSabres #MontrealCanadiens #VegasGoldenKnights #AnaheimDucks #MapleLeafs #CraigBerube #EdmontonOilers #KrisKnoblauch #HockeySHOUTOUT TO OUR SPONSORS!!👍🏼 Fan Duel: https://www.fanduel.com/👍🏼 Ninja: https://www.sharkninja.ca/ninja-crispi-pro-6-in-1-countertop-glass-air-fryer-rose-quartz/AS101CRS.html?utm_source=Meta&utm_medium=Paid+Social&utm_campaign=H1NinjaCrispi&utm_content=NinjaEN&dwvar_AS101CRS_color=cdb9b8Reach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us!If you liked this, check out:🚨 OTT - Coming in Hot Sens | https://www.youtube.com/c/thewallyandmethotshow🚨 TOR - LeafsNation | https://www.youtube.com/@theleafsnation401🚨 EDM - OilersNation | https://www.youtube.com/@Oilersnationdotcom🚨 VAN - CanucksArmy | https://www.youtube.com/@Canucks_Army🚨 CGY - FlamesNation | https://www.youtube.com/@FNBarnBurner🚨 Daily Faceoff Fantasy & Betting | www.youtube.com/@DFOFantasyandBetting____________________________________________________________________________________________Connect with us on ⬇️Link Tree: https://linktr.ee/daily_faceoff💻 Website: https://www.dailyfaceoff.com🐦 Follow on twitter: https://x.com/DailyFaceoff💻 Follow on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailyfaceoffDaily Faceoff Merch:https://nationgear.ca/collections/daily-faceoffReach out to [e-mail] to connect with our Sales Team and discuss opportunities to partner with us! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Okay, let's get to more of the top story of the day. The Oilers are searching for a coach, whoever will they ask. Well, we'll ask Tyler Yeremtuck, who he thinks they'll be asking. And my suspicion is Vegas if they ever allow permission because as of right now, they've been denied. Hey, Tyler, how are you? I'm good. I mean, denied. Well, we can get all the synonyms for denied out.

Okay, we can get all the synonyms for denied out there. It's the same thing. There's a lot of ways you can say it, Mary. put up the stop sign. How are you, Tyler? I'm good. I woke up this morning at 8 a.m. as I usually do. And I had eight text messages from producers and other people. When they fired Knoblock, we need you on this show, that show. And I sat there and I went, where have you all been for 72 hours?

We declared him dead on Tuesdays, Oilers Nation every day. We've done the thing that news stations section, Liam and I have declared Bruce Cassidy, the next head coach of the Edmond Oilers. We've declared the race over. It's conceded. It's done. Wish? There's so many ways I can go here, Tyler, but Merrick and I were talking about this earlier. Like, do you think Knoblock deserved to get fired, despite all of the injuries and all of the mitigating factors, the exhaustion of those two cup runs that led to the Oilers losing in the first round? I don't think he shoulders, you know, the majority of the blame at Edmonton, but I think he wears a good amount of it still.

He got a chance to hire his own staff this year. Paul Coffey left the bench. He let Mark Stewart take on a bigger role running the blue line. He brought him Paul McFarland to run the forward group after Glenn Gulletson went and took the head job in Dallas. He got a chance to kind of put his stamp on the coaching staff. And what happened was the defense got worse. The penalty kill was absolutely terrible for pretty much the entire season. And I also think that his personality type, very calm at times he can be kind of monotone. He doesn't really react to things.

When you hear Connor McDavid at the end of the regular season, season say the regular seasons become monotonous to us. And I do think the oilers sleepwalking through the regular season is a big reason why they lost in round one of the playoffs. They just weren't ready to dial it up and play playoff hockey. Like Chris Knoblock's personality type, I don't think fits what this team needs going into such a make or break year. So did he deserve to get fired?

I mean, in two of the three seasons, he's been behind an NHL bench. He's gone to a Stanley Dublin, been a combined three wins away from winning the whole damn thing. So I don't know if he deserved to get fired, but I also think it's a justified decision if that makes any sense. It seems as if, and this happens with coaches all the time, you have your ideas and you dig in your heels. And no matter what anyone tells you or what evidence there may be about the decisions you make, you wall them off. There were times this season, and I just cited one with Greg. That last game against Anaheim with 2997 and cap on the line on the road. Easy matchup for Joel Quentinville. That's a two-foot pot. I say to myself, I'm sure

that he's heard that there's probably another way to do this. Essentially, was the problem that there wasn't enough water getting from the well to the village? Or was the issue that the coaches didn't care to have a drink from the water that came from the well to draw a really strained analogy here. I don't know. I'll cut him some slack for that decision late in the Anaheim series because we now know Connor McDavid was on one ankle. And I mean,

you even look like when Zach Hyman was not throwing a check for the final two games. Like that's where I'll maybe lean to like what Greg asked me earlier. Like how much does the injuries and all that should it have absolved knoblock? And like Connor McDavid, I don't think could drive his own line. So I think they kind of had to make that decision. And Leon Dry said it was taking the face off a lot of the time and all of that. So I'll absolve them a little bit there, but I do go back to along those lines, the start of training camp,

when, again, the Oilers had these two young, exciting players in Ike Howard and Matt Savoy in camp. And everyone was like, all right, if they break camp, like these are two young pieces who could, you know, really mesh well with a McDavid and a dry saddle. And they started the year Connor, Leon, and Trent Frederick as their top line. And it's like, why you've had all summer to think about this? And you're going big guns together with Trent Frick, a noted top six wing. That was a weird choice for me. And throughout the year, like the 2997 nuclear option, when to put them together, that's gone.

That's pre-Noblock. That's Woodcroft. That's Tippett. That debates always existed here. So I don't think that how he handled that is super high on my list of reasons I was frustrated with Chris Knoblock. But I do look back to that start of the year. And it was like, why was that happening? Why did Chris Knoblock decide on that to start?

Well, because Connor and Leon needed a goal score, obviously. Now, here's the thing I'm wondering about. when when conor and leon both talked about the team taking a step back i think most of us were like well of course it did uh the the roster is not nearly as good as it was in the previous two runs yeah you you you traded for trist and jari like no shit management made the roster worse you have taken a step back but do you think that they meant coaching like do you how much are connor and leon part of this decision and saying hey if you have the chance to you to bring in someone who can give us a defensive acumen like Bruce Cassidy could,

you got to make this move. Do you think that they killed the coach? So I think they were a factor. I think of the moment after they lose game six to the Florida Panthers and Connor McDavid's asked like, why couldn't you deal with this Florida four check? And he said something along the lines of, we were just banging our head against the wall doing the same thing over and over again. And it was like, hmm, in the moment it was like, yeah, he's frustrated. He just lost the Stanley Cup again. He's fried, whatever. And then I think about before the

Olympic break, when Leon Drysito was asked, who needs to be better? And he said, everyone needs to be better. And he kind of said, it starts with the coaching staff. And it was like, whoa, that's an interesting phrase. And then I think about Connor McDavid after they got waxed by the Tampa Bay Lightning was asked, why aren't the Oilers as well coached as the Tampa

Bay Lightning? And he deflected and said, that's a question for Knobber. And it's like, okay. And then Leon in his exit interview says, everyone took a step back. management coaching the players. And it was like, all right. So now there's been in the last calendar year

where these two guys have included coaching pretty bluntly in their evaluation of the team at four different points. Like, I think that kind of tells you right there how they felt. Well, listen.

Talking to Tyler is like watching the end of the usual suspects. Like all the clues were there, Merrick. You know, Bruce Cassidy's name, Bruce Cassidy's name was on a coffee mug. Like, we didn't even know where the breadcrumbs were. Tyler knows.

Skokie. Illinois. Oh, yeah, here we go. I mean, there were Oilers fans when the Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy with seven games left in the season. There were people in my YouTube job being like, there we go. Teams can do it. Fire Knoblock right now. Like this wasn't, and people are making it seem like it's this mess and the Oilers got, you know, and I guess they did kind of get caught trying to have their cake and eat it too. Because I do think if they didn't think Bruce Cassidy was a possibility, I think there's a world where they keep Chris Knoblock. I think there's powerful people in that organization and decision makers who, who, wouldn't have minded having Chris Knoblock back for another year, but I think compromise, and this is the theory from all the information I've been able to scope out, my theory is the compromise between the two camps. One was fire the coach, we aren't winning with this guy. The other one was give him better assistance, and look, we can go back to the cup final, just like we did when he had better assistance.

I think the compromise was everyone agrees Bruce Cassidy's an upgrade. If we can get that guy, we get that guy. But let's not throw Chris Knoblock away for no reason. If we can't get Bruce Cassidy, let's keep him. So let's talk about that because Stan pushed back on that today in his press conference. Like he said they went through the process of review after the season like he said that they would and that the conclusion they came to was to change the coach. There was a delay because he needed to do it face to face and not everybody was in the same place.

So I tend not to believe him and I don't think you believe him either on that timeline. But at least their line that they're selling is that he goes no matter if Cassidy is available or not because that's the conclusion they came to. Do you buy that, though? No, I think he's lying to us. I just don't believe it at all. I don't. I think they sat there and wanted to get permission to talk to Bruce Cassidy

and obviously didn't. And then the information got leaked out by whoever wanted it out there, whoever benefited from it being out there, certainly wasn't the Edmonton Oilers. And they sat there and went, well, certainly can't bring back Chris now. I also think it's funny that yesterday, you know, I saw Friedman had the report and a couple of other people did too, that like Bruce Cassidy's number one preference is to,

is to coach the Edmonton Oilers or something along those lines. And I kind of thought, like, is that the smoke signal from the Cassidy camp telling the Oilers like, hey, you can fire them. Like, 24 hours had gone on since the initial report. That was the Cassidy Campion, like, don't worry, we'll be here for you. We're interested. You can let them go. I can't help with thinking through all of it, too.

And I keep referring it as a doomsday clock, but it is, and it feels like it. Like right now, the Oilers don't have, like Stan Bowman doesn't have the luxury of time on anything. Something doesn't work. You kind of have to change it right away because you're attached to Connor McDavid's contract. Like if Connor had done a four-year deal or a five-year deal, I don't think we're having the exact same discussion. But now it's almost as if the general manager has been backed into a corner where all of a sudden he has a finite amount of time here. here. It's like a Keanu Reeves movie. A finite amount of time to get this thing back on the rails.

And if you have any misgivings about anything, you don't have time to say, let's see how this plays out. You just don't have that. You don't have the luxury of having time. I was curious if one of the people who was okay with keeping Knoblock was maybe Bowman from the perspective of like, ooh, does he want to save that bullet? does he sit there and pick the assistance with Knoblock and say, hey, you didn't do a good job picking them yourself, so we're doing it with you this time. And we pick the assistance. Then Bowman's got lit in the chamber for when the Oilers are inevitably two, seven and three to start next year. And he can go like Piff. Coaching change. Let's get the new coach bump and all that. But I think, again, Bruce Cassidy being on the market probably changed that equation a little bit in all of this. But you're right. Like every decision they make right now is incredibly consequential, which is why, Again, it has to be an experienced.

You know their track record. You know what they're about head coach. As much as, you know, we can talk about the Manny Malhotras and maybe some other guys around the hockey world who haven't had a crack at an NHL bench yet and be like, ah, they'd be interesting. They might fit. I don't think of the Oilers.

You can take a chance on anybody right now. It has to be a sure thing. So it probably has to be Cassidy if it's not him, which, again, I think it is like a Lavie, a let or someone like that. Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on. Pause on that. Pause on that. I was saying to Dave last week, Dave Penoa, last Friday when he was on, or maybe it was the other day.

Actually, all these days all run together. I would just like to be in the room. No, it was last week. I would like to be in the room to hear because all the names have to be out there for a discussion. I would have loved to have been in the room if slash when. And I would believe that the name would have come up. The name Jay Woodcroft would have come up. Hell yeah.

Let's go. Woody 2.0, baby. So I had the take in the 2024 run when they turned it around. I said the whole time they would be doing all of this with Jay Woodcroft behind the bench. That's not like revisionist history or me looking back. I had that take every day on the show and people were heaping praise on Knoblock. I was like, why are we all thinking Jay Woodcroft is suddenly a bad coach? I don't think he was.

I think he got fired because he couldn't get a save. And again, I think his loyalty to Dave Manson heard him because I don't think Dave Manson could really run a modern blue line, at least in the fashion which the Oilers needed. They had to play up-tempo and fast, and they were a little bit too old-school off the glass and out, don't make mistakes sort of thing. Like, you can look at how Evan Bouchard kind of blossomed coming out of that move. So I think Jay Woodcroft is on it. If they would have given him fresh assistance to that season, and if he could have gotten a save,

like that was still Jack Campbell era in Edmonton. He had to go on waivers in November that year. Like, Jay Woodcroft got dealt a crappy hand at the end here. I think he's a fine coach. There's just no shot the Oilers are doing it. Oh, I don't know. Hang on a second. They fix the goaltending.

Obviously, you should come back. But doesn't, at this point, again, like doomsday clock here, everything has to be on the table. Everything. All of it. Don't you think? Even if it means, okay, we know it's the right thing. We might not like it, but we know it's the right thing. We go back to Jay Woodcraft.

And again, I've kind of just lived my life the last 48 hours being like it's Bruce Cassidy. So I haven't spent it. No, I know. Like he's no, he by it. Listen, he is the preferred candidate. We get it. Like, that's it. But if for whatever reason,

Bell Foley digs in his heels, no way, no how. That's, he's my employee. That's what I was going to say. Like, don't we all want to see what that looks like? Don't we all want to see the Oilers having turf their coach and the Vegas Golden Knights being like, no, he signed through next season. I don't know what to tell you.

Couldn't they just make him like head scout or something? Like, couldn't they just give him some other assignment within the organization that's not head coach? and just be like, I'm sorry, he's an important asset to our organization, and Edwinson can't get him. And I don't know how the languages and those contracts work, but I mean, I would just be stunned if Vegas was allowed to do that. Like, I know I asked you kind of blank earlier.

They are. They are allowed to do that. It's just not done. Like, that's like a quick phone call from Gary Batman saying, like, look. Yeah, Gary Lestepton. Technically, Bill, you're right. But come on. Do you know how petty this makes our league look?

Not just your team. It makes our league look petty. If you don't want them, fine. Let them go find work somewhere else. But to Greg's point, we haven't seen this. That'll be so funny. It'd be so funny. It would be very,

for that to be the way this whole thing goes down and they're caught. Like, again, people saying they're panicked and whatever, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, they handled it poorly, whatever. I mean, I just think they were trying to upgrade their team at any cost possible. And if that cost was potentially upsetting Chris Noble, blocks feelings, then sure. And this is probably more oilers, home, or bias of me to say this next part. But like, when the Vegas golden nights are cutthroat and trademark Andre Fleury after telling him he'll be a golden night for life and do all that stuff, everyone's like, yeah, that's how an

organization's ran you. Cut when it all costs. Then the oilers do it. And everyone's like, what a joke. But you said something interesting, though, Tyler, which is that they wanted to upgrade their team at all costs. Don't you think they do this because there's no other way to upgrade their team. They don't have a treasure trove of things to trade. Like if they're going to do big moves this off-season to improve the roster, it's going to be like a money-in, money-out deal with like Darnel Nurse and someone else's defense or something like that.

Like this is the only card they really have to play to improve the team of the short term before they either say goodbye to Connor or trade him. Yeah, and I mean, that's fair. Like looking at this summer and how they could add a big piece to their top six or round out their blue line. They're going to have to get creative. I don't think it's going to be as simple as you know, Stan sending a text to 30 another GMs and saying, hey, darnel nurse for free anybody. Like, that's just not how it's going to work. But if they want to get creative, like they do have a little bit of financial flexibility, $16.8 million in cap space. So they can go out and sign a few pieces,

although the free agent market sucks. But I mean, I was talking with DJ Bean from what chaos. And he had the idea of what if you actually kept 50% of darnel nurse. Is there a job? Is there a GM out there. You know, Buffalo was willing to give up a ton of stuff for Colton Pareco, and don't take this as me comparing Darnel Nurse to Colton Pereco. But if Buffalo was willing to give up a ton of stuff to get bigger, more veteran, meaner on their blue line, maybe they would look at a darnel nurse at 4.75 and sit there and say, yeah, we'll give you a little something for it. Like, we'll take them off your hands. Would Steve Eiserman in Detroit have interest in making his blue line older and more veteran? We know Ottawa's in the market

based on numerous reports. San Jose. San Jose. San Jose. San Jose. all day. San Jose all day. They have no ones. It's Sam Dickinson, Stan the bunch. San Jose's the team I'm looking at. Would one of these teams, if you kept three to four million dollars all of a sudden go, you know what? Free agent class sucks. We'll think darnedle nurse at six million. And then again, can you bring back Connor Murphy with the money you save and all these other things? Like, it's just going to have to be more creative than like the very lowbrow like trade Morgan Riley for darnel nurse. Like it's got to be different than that. I don't think you're. How much? to be able to do the luch each for Neil thing. I think I think Merrick nailed it. 50% retained on nurse plus a second rounder in 2028 for Celebrini. Who says no? I was going to say Colin Graff, but you are like celebrating.

Boom, right? Holy smokes. I wonder about the McDavid of all of this, as we all do. And how much McDavid, I don't know whether he's vocal with Stan Bowman about it, but like make no mistake about it. out it like he wrapped up a Christmas present here for the Edminton Oilers and I don't think that McDavid looks at this and says I didn't give you 12 and a half million on my next two years just so you would only flip out the coach here like how much do we need to keep in the back of our

minds here tell like hold on a second I went above and beyond with my contract now what are you like Sean Conner in the untouchables what are you prepared to do yeah and that's That's what scares me about Stan Bowman being the GM, because I can sit here and go through a lot of really small moves that Stan Bowman's made him. And like, those are great. Pod Colson, you know, scooping up Roslovick for one and a half million on opening night, claiming Casperi Caputin off waivers. Like, he's made some really good, I think dumping Cody Sisi and getting Ty Emerson

in the deal was a solid move. Like, he's made a lot of really good, smaller moves. But the big misses are such horrendous, fall on his face, bad moves. and they've come in moments where he's tried to hit a home run, right? He tried to galaxy brain this Trent Frederick contract and be like, I might have our 3C for the next seven years. Let's lock him up for $3.8 million. He tried to jump the gun with Jake Wallman.

That isn't looking good. Obviously, the Jari trade is out there. And that was, again, a moment where he was trying to hit a Graham home run. I don't know if he's a GM who's very great at hitting home runs. I think he's a very good singles hitter. And his track record through a year and a bit here in Edmonton has kind of shown exactly that. Hey, listen, man, that means he's Tony Gwynn. And that's great.

I'll take Tony Gwynn all day. I'll take Tony Gwynn. Favorite baseball player of all time. Tony Gwynn. Thank you for bringing up Tony Gwynn. My favorite. Thank you. Just my favorite.

Anything else? Greg? No, that's, I mean, I, I don't know, man. It's such a Hail Mary. It's such a, we don't have really any other moves here. And we know that we have two years to fix this kind of situation. But again, I will be. fascinated to see how much player input led to this because no team wants to fire a coach.

It was they all talked about. Connor talked about like this. But it's one thing to criticize the coaching staff. It's another thing to say it's time for this guy to go despite the fact that he's got an extension that hasn't even started yet. Do you think Knoblock gets another gig, by the way, in short order? Or do you think he just sits on his hands and goes on NHL network and collect $7 million for the next three years? again, I like him and from all accounts he's a great guy. I don't know if he has the personality for Teefe.

I don't think he's going to sit there and give you a great story. Fair point. That sounds so mean to him. I think he probably sits out for a year. I don't know if you were getting paid. I know it's the coaching carousel and if you're out of the limelight for too long, it's back in. But he's got his money secured.

I don't know if he's itching to go jump on the Seattle cracking benches and assistant next year or anything like that. So I think we'll see him wait and try to get a head coaching job in a year or 18 months or something. You just said that because he has echoes of Dave Haxthal. That's why you said the Seattle Cracken. He's the same guy. Oh, by the way, if Connor got Knoblock fired, does that enhance or eliminate the theory that he got him hired? Again, I've heard. Made him rich.

There's a lot of stuff. Yeah, he made him rich. There's a lot of stuff flying around Edmonton. I've heard Connor is an overly vocal behind the scenes. It's more Leon and Hyman. Colby Cohen said that on our show yesterday. I heard that last night I heard from someone who was like, hey, Connor's sitting here being like,

I didn't hire Chris Knoblock. I didn't know it was happening. And that was always a theory was that the organization did it because they thought Connor would like it, not because they knew Connor would like it again. What do you believe? I don't know. But it is, again, look,

that Connor's former agent is firing his former head coach. That's how you end up with Adam Foote in Vancouver when you think you're doing right by, your star player. Yeah. That went well. That worked out. And then let's spend $125 million on players trying to convince him to stay after he's told

you he's already going to leave. How'd that go in Vancouver? Yep. On that will hustle. Tyler, excellent, as always. I'm sure this is like one of many hits you are doing today. So make sure you have your throat lozages standing by. It's going to be a busy day for you, Tyler.

Yeah, I think this was show four of six or four of seven for me. I've lost. be more. They'll be more. They'll be more. You'll be good, pal. All right. Tyler,

Yeremt Chuck from Oilers Nation every day and, of course, daily face off live. That goes New Eastern every day alongside Carter Hutton. I don't know.