Oilers extend Kris Knoblauch through 2028-29 season

The Edmonton Oilers signed head coach Kris Knoblauch to a three-year contract extension Friday, keeping him under club control through the 2028-29 season and providing continuity behind the bench after guiding the team to consecutive Stanley Cup finals. The deal, announced by the club, comes after Knoblauch replaced Jay Woodcroft in mid-November 2023 and presided over a rapid turnaround that produced back-to-back appearances in the league final, both losses to the Florida Panthers.

Knoblauch, 47, took over an Oilers team that began the 2023-24 season 3-9-1 and led the club to a 48-16-5 run the rest of that season, culminating in a seven-game Stanley Cup Final loss to Florida. In his first full season in 2024-25 he compiled a 48-29-5 record and guided Edmonton through three playoff rounds before the Oilers again fell to the Panthers in six games. Across 151 regular-season games in charge, Knoblauch’s record stands at 94-47-10, the second-highest total of wins in that span in the NHL.

The extension formalizes a coaching tenure that has seen several notable achievements. Early in his NHL head-coaching career Knoblauch became the first coach to record two winning streaks of at least...