Its been 8 long painful seasons watching Craig Mactavish squash any offensive potential the Edmonton Oilers have shown and it has finally come to an end.  There was a time when I thought Mactavish was doing a good job for the Oilers and was a premier NHL coach because he was making a low skilled team competitive, and that’s his strength.  Now that the Edmonton Oilers have highly skilled players who can compete offensively Mactavish cannot create a system in which they can be successful on a consistent basis.

So will Craig Mactavish coach again in the NHL? I think so, probably in a city that does not want to spend to the cap and as a result will have a lower than average skilled hockey team that will need to play a defensive grind style to win games. One team that comes to mind that Mactavish may be suitable for is the Minnesota Wild.

The Edmonton Oilers on the other hand are on the hunt for an offense first type of coach who will be able to push the young players.  I would not be surprised if Steve Tambelini and Kevin Lowe are speaking with Patrick O’Sullivan and Lubomir Visnovsky about their first hand experience with Marc Crawford when he was coaching the LA Kings.  Oilers GM Steve Tambelini is also familiar with Crawford from when Crawford was coaching the Vancouver Canucks and Tambelini was the assistant GM.

Here is a list of players on the Edmonton Oilers who could benefit from the departure of Craig Mactavish:

Everyone.

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