It’s been quite a debut season for Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.
Since being hired in November by the team to replace former head coach Jay Woodcroft, Knoblauch has led the Oilers from the basement of the NHL standings all the way to the Western Conference Finals and still has a chance at winning the Stanley Cup.
Over that time he has amassed a 46-18-5 record and a .703 points percentage. In the playoffs, he has now picked up eight wins and just four losses. The 45-year-old rookie coach has had himself an impressive start to his NHL career, and voters for the Jack Adams trophy gave him some love.
ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski shared the complete results on social media.
The Jack Adams voting, voted on by the NHL Broadcasters’ Association. Wasn’t close, even though only one coach deprived his team from attending a U2 concert to go 18 games without a regulation loss. pic.twitter.com/0w9JCZiy56
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) May 22, 2024
It was Rick Tocchet of the Vancouver Canucks who ultimately won the award with a landslide 82 first-place votes and 483 points, but Knoblauch was able to crack the top five and did receive some first-place nods.
The Oilers bench boss finished in fifth place with three first-place votes and 64 points. This was good enough to beat out some pretty heavy hitters like Florida Panthers’ Paul Maurice and Rod Brind’Amour of the Carolina Hurricanes. Yet, it was just short of becoming a finalist for the award as Rick Bowness rounded out that list in third place with 75 points.
One interesting thing about this year’s ballot is that Knoblauch finished just behind New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette for fourth place. At the beginning of the season, both of those coaches were with the same organization as Knoblauch was the coach of the Rangers’ AHL affiliate to start the year.
Though he didn’t get quite enough votes to take home the award this time around, Oilers fans should still be thrilled with how far he’s gotten their team. Edmonton is just four wins away from advancing to the Stanley Cup Finals, which would have been a pipe dream after their horrendous start to the season.
If he keeps this up, there is no reason why he won’t be higher up on the ballot next season.