Jason Brough

Here is Bob Stauber, who's as dialed in as anyone with the Oilers, talking about what I would consider a pending hire of Mike Babcock as the next head coach.

Here's Bob.

Just one problem.

The Edmonton Oilers might not be allowed to hire Mike Babcock.

According to multiple sources, they still need to ask and get permission from the NHL Players Association.

Basically, if there are any issues that need to be resolved, one would assume stemming from the Columbus situation before potentially hiring Mike Babcock.

This, to me, and, you know, it was funny, Robert Tchaikovsky from the Edmonton Journal coined this as the third act of the most dysfunctional trilogy in coaching history in the National Hockey League.

The first one, first part of the trilogy, was the Cassidy situation.

Trying to...

Trying to interview someone while you still had a head coach on the payroll isn't that uncommon.

Getting turned down for that interview because he's still under contract from another NHL team is a little bit uncommon.

But that's the first act.

The second act is that after that's out there,

They need to fire Chris Knobloch.

Don't forget, when all of this broke, Chris Knobloch was still employed.

What's more, his three-year extension, which paid him $7.8 million, hadn't even kicked in yet.

So not only have you tried to hire or at the very least interview someone while you have a head coach in place, now that that's leaked, you have to go back and fire the guy, pay him out for an extension that never even kicked in.

That's act two.

Act three is going to a guy which I will remind you...

Has been problematic in all of his last three stops.