u/vJukz

Source: @ mndamico

After a fantastic season with the Medicine Hat Tigers Bryce Pickford finished with 45 goals 83 points in 55 games. His season brought him the WHL Defenseman of the Year, WHL Player of the Year and CHL Defenseman of the Year titles.

Edited for clarity. These are the Oilers questions from the segment:

11:50 - Q: How long will they wait for Bruce Cassidy?

>EF: “No, they're not waiting… Look, the only reason this played out the way it did was they tried to do it quietly and it got out, right? if you're the Oilers, you're going after him and you're getting it done. That's the goal here.”

12:20 Q: Could they go to the league to push Vegas for permission?

>EF: “You could. I don't know that it's going to do anything..I got a note this morning. I was under the impression that the league was not interfering at this point in time."

>I think there's a couple of things here: number one, I think that now we have an opening in Edmonton. Number two, there has been some suggestion given to me that the Golden Knights didn't want to deal with this while they were in the middle of their series and they were prepared to deal with it after their series.

>And the thing I talked about on the pod is about the money, I think that's a factor. There is some suspicion out there that the Golden Knights wanted to make sure that if Cassidy is hired, they will not have to pay him at all next year. It will be at a number that either equals or exceeds what he was supposed to make, which I believe was 4.5M. And then there's just a little bit of, you know, we've got control here and you don't.”

>I still think this will sort its way out, but I think one or a degree of all of those things was at play. I ultimately think he will be given permission, but the last I checked, which was about two hours ago, I didn't get the sense he had been.”

17:20 Q: Do you think Craig Berube is a candidate? Or is it Cassidy or bust?

>“To me, it just seems like this whole thing is because of Cassidy. And I wasn't surprised by anything Stan Bowman said today in the sense of..this was clumsy..this is not the way that these things are supposed to go. But I don't think Edmonton is apologising at all for we have to review what we have to review.

>And there was some feeling in there that if it doesn't get out, there's a chance that Cassidy is a no and Knoblauch still the coach.

>So I think really what it comes down to is they had targeted him or someone like him. Like Jon Cooper, he's not available. So, you know, if Jon Cooper was available, we might be talking about Jon Cooper and Bruce Cassidy. But Jon Cooper is not available. So I just think the way this unfolded, it's hard not to look at it and think Edmonton is going to take a big run at this guy and try to get him as quick as they can.”

Link: https://www.sportsnet.ca/590/the-fan-hockey-show/around-the-nhl-with-elliotte-friedman-oilers-next-steps-canucks-name-new-front-office

• Says the news coming out has caused some issues in Edmonton as Knoblauch is still employed (his new 3 year extension starts in July).
• Friedman believes Oilers wanted to quietly talk to Cassidy and then decide if they wanted to make the change. And maybe they would have just listened to him, but not made the change.
• Now that the news is out and Knoblauch knows, Friedman believes they might have to make that change anyway because it’s out there.
• It’s not pretty, but in sports it happens.
• 6:45 “I do think the Oilers wanted to get this done quietly, and they're just not going to be able to do that anymore. Now, what you're probably going to have to do, Kyle, is you're probably going to have to make the coaching change anyway.”
• He feels confident it wasn’t the Oilers who leaked this.
• A theory on why Vegas has not given them permission yet: Cassidy makes 4.5M, this executive thinks Vegas wants a guarantee that if EDM or LA or hire him, they pay all of his salary and Vegas won't have to pay any of it next season.
• The league has indicated before it has to be a real good reason to deny permission to coaches, like Cassidy explicity saying he's not interested in LA or EDM for example.
• He says the feeling now is that the news coming out will force the Oilers hand in making a change.

Link to episode: https://www.sportsnet.ca/podcasts/32-thoughts/buffalo-bensons-first-beer/