Kelly McCrimmon’s excuse for Bruce Cassidy leak doesn’t add up

As the Vegas Golden Knights wait for their Stanley Cup Final opponent to be decided, the distractions off the ice continue. The Bruce Cassidy saga remains a dominant topic surrounding the team, and during a press conference on Thursday, Vegas GM Kelly McCrimmon addressed the issue, excusing it because “it’s only news because Edmonton leaked it”.

But does McCrimmon’s excuse track? Tyler Yaremchuk talked on Daily Faceoff Live about how the Oilers’ current situation means it wouldn’t make sense for them to leak the inquiry.

Tyler Yaremchuk: What did Edmonton gain from all of this? If they knew Vegas was going to be stubborn, leaking it to the public, I don’t think does anything.

Also, if we think back to whatever it was, 10-14 days ago when this news came out, Kris Knoblauch was still the coach of the Edmonton Oilers. So you’re telling me Edmonton would have intentionally leaked news and then had to go back and fire Kris Knoblauch. It’s my understanding in this whole situation that Edmonton was never convinced that there was more than one coach out there better than Kris Knoblauch. I think they were under the impression of, “we’re gonna try to stealthily get Bruce Cassidy. If we can’t get him, we’re going to keep Kris Knoblauch unless a better option becomes available at some point”. So I don’t think this came from Edmonton at all.

My read on it is that it probably came from Bruce Cassidy’s agent. I think people forget that coaches have agents. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Bruce Cassidy has been on nine podcasts in the last two weeks as he tries to continue to build up public support. Bruce Cassidy’s agent probably sat there and went, “hold on, we can’t get hired in Edmonton because Vegas is blocking this?”

Bruce Cassidy is the one who benefits from the public pressure on all this. The Oilers really didn’t benefit at all.

You can watch the full episode here…