Head coaching job up in the air for Bears
If Oilers let Herbers go, he’ll likely return to U of A, leaving Lajoie looking for work
When Ian Herbers left the University of Alberta Golden Bears to join Todd McLellan’s staff as an assistant coach with the Edmonton Oilers in 2015, he got a three-year sabbatical to coincide with the length of his NHL contract.
The Oilers may only have been a detour for Herbers.
“Looking back three years ago, we hired a coach who won three Canada West and two national championships. I think anybody in my position would give him the opportunity to return if he wanted to,” said Golden Bears general manager Stan Marple, who indicated he has a timeline to decide on next year’s head coach but “hasn’t reached it yet.”
Herbers’ contract with the Oilers doesn’t end until June 30.
Current Golden Bears head coach Serge Lajoie, who left NAIT to replace Herbers and guided the U of A men’s hockey team to the national title last month, has interviewed for the vacant benchboss job with the junior Saskatoon Blades of the Western Hockey League, which sounds like he’s being proactive if Herbers moves back to the Bears.
Marple has no problem with Lajoie looking elsewhere even if he’s technically still his team’s coach.
“I’m absolutely OK with that. I wasn’t happy the Oilers signed Ian three years ago, but they did, so you deal with it,” said Marple, who had Herbers as the Bears’ head coach for three years. “Just like I promote our players to try pro when they’re done, I want to promote our coaches and help everybody involved. My relationship with both of those individuals (Herbers and Lajoie) is very long and very close. I want the best for both of them and right now there’s nothing to report on the head-coaching situation because we have a timeline.”
Herbers, a good friend of Lajoie, was generally the eye-inthe-sky for Oilers games, sitting in the press box with goalie coach Dustin Schwartz while McLellan, Jay Woodcroft and Jim Johnson were on the bench. He didn’t have specific duties like Woodcroft, who looked after the forwards and the power play while Johnson guided the penalty-kill and the defence.
The ball is in Oilers GM Peter Chiarelli’s court. If Chiarelli and McLellan want him back, he may choose to stay.
If not, he has a safe landing spot at the U of A.
Herbers isn’t keen on going anywhere else for work, either to major junior, where he helped coach an under-18 Canadian team at the 2015 worlds, or minor pro, where he was once Nashville’s farm team head coach.
Marple said Herbers’ three-year sabbatical was “consistent” with the length of his Oilers’ deal.
“That was done for a reason. A sabbatical is on a case-by-case basis but my proposal to the athletic director was we do it for three years,” he said.
So, it’s a waiting game for now. Lajoie played seven games in the WHL for the Kamloops Blazers in 1986-87 before joining the St. Albert Saints in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. From there, he joined the Bears’ blue line for five years. He won two Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference titles at NAIT as a coach in his five years there.
The Blades, who fired Dean Brockman at season’s end, could compete for the Eastern Division title next season. They have forward Kirby Dach, who had 46 points in 52 games in his first full WHL season and could be a top-10 pick in the 2019 NHL draft. There are lots of head coaching candidates, but Lajoie’s resume is good. ON THE BENCH: Lauri Korpikoski’s $1-million buyout comes off the Oilers’ salary cap but they’re still paying buyout winger Benoit Pouliot $1.333 million for three more years ... Bakersfield goalie Laurent Brossoit and defencemen Keegan Lowe and Dillon Simpson are all unrestricted free agents July 1. Restricted free agents Braden Christoffer and Kyle Platzer ( both 15-point seasons) and Ben Betker might not be qualified and would be UFAs as well. They will probably sign college draft pick forward Tyler Vessel, who had six points in 11 games in an amateur tryout at season’s end in Bakersfield … The Oilers have to decide whether to sign 2016 third-round pick defenceman Markus Niemelainen, who spent the year in Finland after his OHL career, or he’ll go back into the 2018 draft.