We’ve been under the impression from pundits like Elliotte Friedman that the Oilers have been waiting around to interview Vegas Golden Knights assistant general manager Kelly McCrimmon. That they haven’t yet received permission to speak to the highly sought after executive.
“As I write this, Vegas has not yet granted official permission for Edmonton to meet with McCrimmon, although an answer is expected at some point this week.” (source)
That is from the April 30th edition of 31 Thoughts.
The next quote is via Oilers Now! It belongs to PHWA President Mark Spector. It pertains to what sort of person Kelly McCrimmon is and Spector prefaced this quote by saying, “I talked to a contract that knows McCrimmon real well and the quote I will share with you was,”
“When that interview in Edmonton ended, the guys in Edmonton probably felt like they were the ones being interviewed.”
Just click play and you’ll hear what Spector said. Also, this came out on the same day as Friedman’s blog.
Now, I know from time to time that Spec lets things slip that shouldn’t get out from time to time, but I don’t see this as one of them. This was very much on purpose.
I also remember a couple of things blowing up on Friedman this past season that he’d reported…
So who has the right information?
My impression of the way this process was supposed to go was it was going to be airtight. No Leaks. So what’s happening here? The Sportsnet guys are putting out conflicting reports whereas the pundits over at TSN are still speculating on who the third or fourth candidate is still. Then you have Friedman and Rishaug going head to head on the Ken Holland reports…
I do think the Oilers are leaking things but don’t ask me which things are true and which are not. At this point, the news is so juicy that I reckon the reporters are grabbing onto anything and running with it.
Hockey politics is fun, isn’t it?
My belief is that Edmonton has talked to McCrimmon, be that informally or as Spector said, formally, and he is the no. 1 candidate at this point in time. Whether he wants the job, I think that’s the more pertinent question because if he doesn’t want it, Mark Hunter has interviewed twice and I would go as far as to say that it’s his job if McCrimmon passes on it.
Interesting note coming from Bob Stauffer from today’s Oilers Now! though. He said that Sean Burke could still be in the running for the GM’s position but it was his opinion that he could come into the org in more of a support role potentially. The reason for that according to Stauffer is because he’s not seen in the same light as McCrimmon and Mark Hunter.
So how would you feel about a Kelly McCrimmon/Sean Burke combo or a Mark Hunter/Sean Burke tandem?
