It wouldn't have been a surprise to say in training camp that this season's Edmonton Oilers would be in the Stanley Cup Final. After finishing the 2022-23 season with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl sitting first and second in scoring and the roster's core returning, the team expected to build on last year's Round 2 playoff exit.
But the reality was much different. The Oilers opened the campaign disastrously, losing 10 of their first 13 games. A particularly humiliating 3-2 loss to the cellar-dwelling San Jose Sharks tied them for last in the league. Even hitting rock bottom didn't change much.
"You go into the year with the expectation that you're one of the best teams in the league, and you're going to go to the Stanley Cup Final and have a chance to win," forward Zach Hyman said this week.
"All of a sudden, 15 games into the season, you're second-last. It's like, what happened? What's going on?"
The loss to San Jose was the second-last game of coach Jay Woodcroft's tenure. After compiling a 3-9-1 record, the team needed a new plan and a different voice to implement it.
Enter Kris Knoblauch.
Calm in chaos
In the fall of 2023, while the Oilers were chaotically trying to stop the bleeding, Knoblauch was settling into his fifth season behind the bench for the AHL's Hartford Wolf Pack, the New York Rangers' top affiliate.
"At the time, I was hoping to get my American League team into the playoffs, and we'll see what happens from there," Knoblauch said this week.
His position with the Wolf Pack was the natural extension of a long-time dream he nurtured as a young boy growing up in the Prairie town of Imperial, Saskatchewan. The New York Islanders drafted him in the seventh round in 1997 while he was playing junior hockey, but his playing career culminated with five seasons as a star for the University of Alberta men's team.
"When I was kid, thinking about getting to the NHL, having the opportunity to play, win a Stanley Cup, I always wanted to do it as a player," Knoblauch said. "Eventually, you realize you're not going to be able to compete as a player, maybe you can do it as a coach."
So Knoblauch started the grind. He began as an assistant coach for the Prince Albert Raiders and Kootenay Ice in the WHL. After Kootenay elevated him to the top job in 2010, he took the junior club to the Memorial Cup in his first season. Two campaigns later, Knoblauch landed in Erie, Pennsylvania, as the head coach of the Otters in the OHL.
"I just think about the sacrifices (my wife) made. ... How many times we moved, how many jobs she's given up," Knoblauch said. "If I was to go back - we probably made some poor decisions for her to quit the good, quality jobs that she had for me to chase some low-paying, below-poverty wages just to see what happens."
Those early days would prove fateful. Knoblauch first crossed paths with McDavid in 2012-13, the star's first year in Erie. In his three seasons with the Otters, McDavid amassed 285 points.
"Connor still does astonish me," Knoblauch said. "I think he won't be able to do it, and he does it again."
Following McDavid's departure to the NHL, Knoblauch led an Otters team featuring Alex DeBrincat to the Memorial Cup in 2017.
Despite various interviews for NHL coaching positions over the years - including one with current Florida Panthers coach Paul Maurice - Knoblauch's NHL resume only consisted of working as an assistant with the Philadelphia Flyers from 2017-19. He'd been with the Wolfpack for four seasons before the Oilers called.
"He came in when we were at rock bottom," Hyman said. "I think he just instilled a wave of calmness and confidence."
Edmonton won Knoblauch's first two contests but then gave up 17 goals in a three-game losing streak to start a road trip. But that was the end of the misery. Edmonton won 24 of its next 27, including a 16-game winning streak - the second longest in NHL history.
By mid-November, around the time of Knoblauch's arrival, McDavid had dropped to 126th in scoring despite coming off a 153-point MVP campaign.
McDavid finished the regular season third overall in the points race with 132, just 12 back of leader Nikita Kucherov. Hyman also benefited, becoming the seventh player in franchise history to score 50 goals on his way to a career-high 54. He leads all playoff scorers with 14 through three rounds.
"He helped some of our best players. We were all struggling. I think that's why our team was where we were. And he came in just with a calming presence, the process-based plan," Hyman said.
The Oilers compiled a dominating 46-18-5 record under Knoblauch to rise to second in the Pacific Division behind the Vancouver Canucks.
"He just brought such a calming and relaxing presence," goalie Stuart Skinner said. "He's so stoic and so calm. I think that was just his attitude about coming in. It was massive for us. Because obviously, being an Oiler can be a stressful, stressful thing, especially with outside noise and outside pressure. He was just a rock for us, and he's been a rock for us for this whole entire year."
Cool and collected
As the Oilers head into Saturday's Game 1 of the finals, Knoblauch is looking to maintain the calmness he instituted when he took the helm in November.
"The Stanley Cup Finals are different," he said. "There are more media requests, more interviews, there's just more attention, more things in the papers. … It's just settling everything down and making it feel like just a regular game. We just want our players to be able to play our game and, when they're on the ice, just be able to focus on playing. You can get too caught up in everything else that's going on often easily. Guys get distracted."
On that point, he's already leading by example.
Reaching the finals was a lifelong dream for Knoblauch, and he achieved it on June 2 with a 2-1 win over the Dallas Stars, propelling the Oilers to their first finals appearance since 2006. Instead of letting his excitement show through with over-the-top verbosity, Knoblauch maintained the calmness he's become known for.
"I don't have any words," he said after the victory. "This is remarkable."
Jolene Latimer is a features writer at theScore.
