Insider: Many Around Oilers 'Not Overly Thrilled' About Paul Coffey's Return to the Bench

Edmonton Oilers assistant coach Paul Coffey looks on from the bench

Many around the league will be watching the Edmonton Oilers very closely as things pick up again in the coming days. While things were mostly quiet around the NHL during the Olympic break, the Oil pulled off a big move off the ice, bringing back franchise legend Paul Coffey to return to his role as assistant coach. He'll be back running the defense corps once again, as he did from 2023 to the end of last season, before he left under somewhat of a cloud.

But according to insider David Pagnotta, speaking on the Hello Hockey podcast in Edmonton, Coffey's return comes with as many questions as answers.

The change hasn't been welcomed with open arms by a lot of people in the organization, I don't think everyone's overly thrilled about it, quite frankly, I don't think Coff's overly thrilled about going back behind the bench again... It's confusing to me.

The thing is, leading up to the break, everyone around the team denied that a move to bring Coffey back was in the cards. But, as Pagnotta added, "Something changed. What changed, I don't know."

The Oilers are only four points out of first place in the Pacific Division, sure. But their blueline, and overall team defense, has been a problem. They gave up 34 goals in their last seven games before the Olympic Break (4.86 goals against per game). In fact, only three teams in the entire NHL have surrendered more goals on the season than their 194 to date. And the Oilers' 64 points would leave them five points back of a playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

"Do I think Paul Coffey behind the bench will help upgrade the overall D-corps?" Pagnotta asked himself in summing things up. "Yeah. To an extent. But is it enough? No... I maintain that they still need to address the roster itself."