If you’d have asked a 19-year-old Kris Knoblauch what his real-life job was going to be one day, well, it certainly wasn’t as the 18th head coach of the Edmonton Oilers.
“I always thought — always — that I was going to be a police officer,” said the 45-year-old Knoblauch, in a wide-ranging sit-down interview conducted Sunday afternoon in Florida. “My sister is a police officer with the RCMP. My (junior) billet in Lethbridge was RCMP. My billet in Cranbrook was RCMP, and my billet in Edmonton was Edmonton City Police.”
Alas, today, he’s the sheriff in Edmonton, a softer-spoken, thoughtful coach who we suspect will do more teaching than yelling. He has an education degree from the University of Alberta, where he starred for five seasons — the final three as an assistant captain — and won a national championship, racking up 100 goals and 254 points in 208 games as a Golden Bear.
He’s a teacher by nature. Always was.
“When I was in high school … in my spare time, I didn’t study as much as I should have,” he admits. “I would go down to the elementary classes and be with elementary kids. Whether they’re doing arts or math or whatever, that’s what I did with all my free time.”
Knoblauch got his first WHL job in Prince Albert because he was the only guy willing to work for a salary as low as the one they were offering. Today, he’s taking over a Stanley Cup-or-bust project that is teetering dangerously close to the latter.
So much so that the Oilers fired head coach Jay Woodcroft and replaced him with Knoblauch.
Who is this tall, professorial-looking coach from Imperial, Sask.? The guy they call “Chuck,” after the big-leaguer of the same name?
Let’s get to know him.
