After firing their head coach, Bruce Cassidy, in March of this year, the Vegas Golden Knights are blocking teams in the NHL, including the Edmonton Oilers, from interviewing him. GM Kelly McCrimmon revealed in a press conference on Tuesday that the Knights are currently focused on competing in the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs rather than entertaining interest in their former coach from other teams.

With over a year left on Cassidy’s contract, the Oilers would need permission from the Golden Knights to talk with him to hire him as their new coach. According to NHL insider Elliotte Friedman, Vegas’ stance is one of apprehension about Cassidy eventually coming back to stop them in their tracks down the road in the NHL.

He commented on OilersNow about the Golden Knights’ tough experience with their former coach, Peter DeBoer, in 2024. Friedman said, “I had a couple of people who told me that after Vegas fired Peter DeBoer, he went to Dallas and had three-straight years in the Western Conference Final… I heard inside the Golden Knights organization it was kinda like ‘This guy, we fired him, and he beat us,’ and I think this left a pretty sour taste.”

“I initially said I’m not sure I buy that, and then after I said it, I started getting calls and texts from people saying, ‘You better start buying that, because that’s very much at the heart of this,'” he concluded.

Notably, Peter DeBoer, who had joined the Dallas Stars a month after leaving the Golden Knights in the summer of 2022, lost to them in the 2023 NHL Western Conference Finals 4-2. In 2024, DeBoer got his revenge by inflicting a 4-3 defeat on Vegas in the first round of the playoffs.

Edmonton Oilers fired Kris Knoblauch while attempting to hire Bruce Cassidy from the Vegas Golden Knights

Last week, the Edmonton Oilers made the decision to fire head coach Kris Knoblauch after being eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Anaheim Ducks. The move came after reports emerged that the Oilers were attempting to hire Bruce Cassidy and had requested permission from the Vegas Golden Knights to interview him.

Edmonton faced significant criticism for its decision to part ways with Knoblauch, especially after just one difficult season following back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025.

Meanwhile, Cassidy won the Stanley Cup in his first season as head coach of the Golden Knights in 2023 before the team was eliminated in the first and second rounds of the playoffs in 2024 and 2025, respectively. He was dismissed in March of this year after Vegas posted a 3-5-2 record in its last 10 games, and he was replaced by John Tortorella.

With the Golden Knights officially making it clear that they intend to block the Oilers and other teams from interviewing Cassidy, it appears this saga could soon take another dramatic turn. Either Vegas will confirm its decision to buy out the remainder of his contract, or it will choose to release him completely.

Do you picture Bruce Cassidy as the new head coach of the Edmonton Oilers?

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Written by

Arjun Sharma

Edited by

Sahil Prashar