The Oilers made an awkward misstep this offseason, and Pierre LeBrun just put a finer point on it.
When Edmonton first approached Vegas about talking to Bruce Cassidy, LeBrun says, Kris Knoblauch was still employed as the Oilers' head coach. That rubbed Vegas the wrong way.
It's not a great look. Pursuing another team's coach while your own is still on the job is the kind of thing that burns bridges.
The timeline checks out, too. Edmonton has a coaching vacancy now, with Stan Bowman as GM and no head coach in place. But the approach happened while Knoblauch was still there.
That detail explains a lot of the friction that followed.
LeBrun's note fills in a piece of the messy backstory.
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The misstep that soured Vegas on Edmonton
Connect it to what we already knew. Nick Kypreos reported Vegas would block Cassidy from joining a Pacific rival like the Oilers in the first place.
LeBrun's detail adds a personal layer on top of the competitive one. Vegas had a reason beyond rivalry to be cold, because the manner of Edmonton's approach ruffled feathers.
So it wasn't just two contenders refusing to help each other. The Oilers gave Vegas a specific grievance to point to.
It also deepens the mess that is Edmonton's coaching search. The Cassidy path was already blocked, and now we know it was soured further.
The other option isn't clean either. Mike Babcock remains tangled in an NHLPA-requested investigation, with a ruling pending. Bowman's choices keep narrowing.
Here's my read: this isn't a flattering sequence for Edmonton. Teams do quiet due diligence all the time, but getting caught reaching for a rival's coach while your own is employed creates exactly this kind of friction.
It helps explain why the Cassidy door slammed shut. Vegas had both competitive and personal reasons to say no.
So the Oilers' coaching saga looks even messier in hindsight. The Cassidy avenue is closed, and the Babcock route is frozen.
Bowman's path to a head coach remains Edmonton's thorniest summer question, and LeBrun just showed how it got this complicated in the first place.
Did the Oilers mishandle their pursuit of Bruce Cassidy?
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