Former NHL GM Brian Burke was left none too impressed with the leak about the Vegas Golden Knights blocking talks between their former head coach, Bruce Cassidy, and the Edmonton Oilers. While speaking on The Sheet podcast with host Jeff Marek, he not only blasted the leak but also felt for current Edmonton head coach Kris Knoblauch, whose time is seemingly numbered.

​Burke said the following about Knoblauch amidst the chaos: “That should have been done much more quietly in my view. Because now you’ve got a dead man walking, the coach. No one should be put through that. Now there’s a dead man walking — and I think it’s really wrong that it leaked out. I don’t know who to blame.”

​The 70-year-old pleaded the case for Vegas in the aforementioned situation, mentioning that they should do anything to advance their cause, but the leak is something where he drew the line.

​“I don’t mind if they (Vegas) said no. You have to have permission to talk to someone. They can say no for the next 12 months and pay him off in full, or however long he’s got. That’s well respected within the industry. But to say no and leak it, whoever leaked it, that’s really bad,” he explained his take.

​Notably, the Knights fired Cassidy on March 29 of this year after their team had a 3-5-2 record in his final 10 games in charge of the regular season. They topped the Pacific Division despite a record of 39-26-17 with 95 points in 82 games and finished 13th overall in the NHL 2025-26 standings.

​Under new head coach John Tortorella, Vegas is currently 3-2 ahead in the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs series against the Anaheim Ducks.

Vegas is blocking Cassidy-Oilers talks to potentially make Connor McDavid leave Edmonton

NHL insider Frank Seravalli gave his take on the Vegas Golden Knights blocking the talks between Bruce Cassidy and the Edmonton Oilers on The Kevin Karius Show a couple of days ago. He stated that Vegas wants to unsettle the Oilers and potentially make Connor McDavid leave Edmonton, getting rid of him at the earliest from the Pacific Division.

Seravalli said the following about the intent of the Knights: “They’ve gotten to the top with Bruce Cassidy. You don’t have to look very far on the Stanley Cup where the Vegas Golden Knights are etched to see and find Bruce Cassidy’s name. If I’m in Vegas’ shoes — and they’ve well-earned this reputation around the league of being a ruthless organization and how they’re run — their goal here is not only to break the Oilers’ wagon and have some fun with them.”

“I believe their goal and their intent must be, well, ‘I don’t want to see Bruce Cassidy go have success in Edmonton because we know how good of a coach he is. It’s not just that. But if they can prevent the Oilers from having success, maybe just maybe it means that they’ll get rid of Conor McDavid in their division in relatively short order,'” he added.

Moreover, if Vegas continues to not grant permission to Cassidy to go talk to the Oilers, then it might not look good on the Stanley Cup-winning head coach himself. Ultimately, Cassidy will have to evaluate his options to continue being on the coaching side of things after being on top of the world already in 2023.

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Written by

Arjun Sharma