We’re more than a week out from the news leaking that the Oilers were denied permission to speak to former Golden Knights head coach, Bruce Cassidy, and all I can think about is how long Stan Bowman plans to wait. With Vegas dragging their feet on giving Edmonton permission to speak to the guy they just fired, the Oilers find themselves in a terrible position of having to wait and see. Needless to say, this situation is not ideal.

It doesn’t take much to figure out that Bruce Cassidy is the guy Edmonton wants to be their next head coach. Whether that’s the right call or not is a decision that can only be judged with time, but the logic of circling his name on the board is pretty easy to understand. He’s won the Cup before, he has plenty of experience, and he’s had enough success that would make sense for a team that believes it should still be in win-now mode.

The problem is that wanting Cassidy and actually being able to talk to him about the gig are two very different things.

Since Cassidy is still under contract with Vegas, the Golden Knights have the right to deny the Oilers permission to speak with him. From an Edmonton perspective, that’s annoying as hell. From a Vegas perspective, it’s the kind of Evil Empire decision making they’ve been doing since day. Even though they just fired the guy, in their minds, why would they want to help a division rival land the coach they clearly want? If they can’t have him then no one can, and........

© Oilers Nation