Golden Knights shouldn’t mess around with Bruce Cassidy’s next coaching gig
The Edmonton Oilers appear to be making a change. Or at least, they want to be looking at Bruce Cassidy — but can’t.
On Tuesday, Frank Seravalli reported that the Oilers had reached out to former Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy but were blocked by the Golden Knights, despite the Vegas team having dismissed Cassidy in favor of John Tortorella late in the regular season.
While Cassidy remains under contract with the Golden Knights, it is rare that a team will defend its former bench boss, even against a divisional opponent like the Oilers.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton broke down the situation and how Vegas should step back from the process.
Tyler Yaremchuk: We’re going to talk about Bruce Cassidy and the story that the Golden Knights are withholding permission from the Edmonton Oilers to speak to their former head coach about a job in Edmonton that’s not even open — Kris Knoblauch hasn’t been fired yet. This sounds like a little bit of gamesmanship, we’ll call it. I don’t know if this is necessarily Vegas saying you can’t speak to him; it sounds like Vegas is just kind of delaying their answer, saying they’re in the playoffs right now and not going to deal with this. But if it does get out that Vegas is outright denying him, I think the NHL is going to have something to say about this. As much as there are contracts and money involved, I don’t know if it’ll sit well in league circles if Vegas is outright saying no.
Carter Hutton: I can’t see that going over well, especially in the musical chairs world we live in now of coaching. He was fired from his job. I think that’s the important factor. I think maybe for Vegas, this is getting played up in the sense, because it is a Pacific Division rival, and the last thing they probably want is Bruce Cassidy coaching the Edmonton Oilers, because they know he is a good coach, but they made the change, and that’s what they have to live with now at this point. I think for them, and to your point, the fact that it’s playoffs and they’re in a dogfight right now, this is stuff that they would probably like to just sweep under the rug and kick it down and figure it out later on, when that time comes. But for right now, it’s an interesting topic, because I cannot see the league not backing that. The fact is, you fired him; he’s fair game.
You can catch the full Bruce Cassidy breakdown and the entirety of Tuesday’s episode right here…