From Otters to Oilers: Bassin explains why Knoblauch is right fit in Edmonton

It was Connor McDavid’s rookie season in the Ontario Hockey League and things weren’t going well during a game in Windsor against the Spitfires.

Then-Erie Otters head coach Kris Knoblauch, hired mid-season after the firing of Robbie Ftorek following a slow start for the team in 2012-13, wasn’t overly happy with his prized rookie that night.

At that moment, Knoblauch didn’t care that McDavid was a rare ‘exceptional player’ — granted entry into the OHL Draft one year early, allowing the Otters to take him first overall. Knoblauch, not liking what he was seeing, kept McDavid stapled to the bench for a good 10 to 12 minutes of the third period.

Up in the stands, then-Otters owner/general manager Sherry Bassin couldn’t help but wonder what was coming next.

“I thought ‘oh my god. All I need are agents and stuff (calling),’” the legendary junior hockey executive recalled over the phone.

“But to show you the dynamic between the two of them, this tells you the whole story. I came down after the game. McDavid came out (of the dressing room) and looked at me and said ‘I deserved it.’ Everybody knew his ability. That’s when I was 100 per cent convinced he was going to be a superstar.

“The parents didn’t say a word about it, they’re just wonderful people. Normally you’ve got the agent calling, the mother crying, the pet cat whining. Not a thing. Not a peep out of the parents, nothing. There was a big mutual respect.”

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McDavid went on to be OHL rookie of the year that season and MVP of the league two years later — right before he was selected first overall by the Edmonton Oilers in the NHL Draft.

Knoblauch went on to coach the Otters to a record four 50-win seasons in a row, including an OHL title in 2016-17 while McDavid already was raising eyebrows in the NHL.

On Sunday, McDavid and Knoblauch officially reunited when the latter was hired to be head coach of the Oilers, replacing Jay Woodcroft.

Bassin knows McDavid and Knoblauch, who was working as head coach of the New York Rangers’ AHL affiliate in Hartford prior to joining the Oilers, just about as well as anyone.

“I can’t think of anything but positive,” Bassin said Sunday. “There’s a mutual respect for each other… (Knobluach) is one to reach out to his players and he’s won everywhere.”

“I’ve got to give the management people in Edmonton credit. Usually they want to bring somebody else in with experience. I really give them credit that they went and found this guy.”

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While Bassin, 84, and Knoblauch, 45, both were born and raised in small-town Saskatchewan, they didn’t run in the same hockey circles.

Knoblauch, a former University of Alberta Golden Bears player (he attended teacher’s college at the Edmonton university), first caught the eye of Bassin at the 2011 Memorial Cup in Mississauga, Ont., when he was coaching the Kootenay Ice. Bassin had read up about the Ice’s impressive run in the Western Hockey League playoffs.

“At the Memorial Cup, when two of the teams from out of the province are playing, hardly anyone goes. Even the people who bought packages don’t go,” Bassin said. “I was with some of my people and they were going out to get something to eat or something when the Western Hockey League team played the Quebec (Major Junior Hockey League) team.

“I said ‘No, I’m not (going).’ They said ‘what do you mean?’ I said ‘I want to watch Knoblauch’s team.’ There were so many things from a hockey standpoint (that were impressive). I thought ‘this guy’s a coach.’”

Fast forward to the 2012 off-season and Knoblauch was fired by the Ice. Bassin, who already had a coach, called his fellow Saskatchewan native to give him some kind words.

“I called him and said right now there’s no interest, I don’t talk behind people’s backs,” Bassin said. “When he got fired, I just wanted him to know (he was) a hell of a coach.”

With the Otters not playing up to expectations months later, Bassin called again, this time to see if Knoblauch wanted the Otters gig. After he accepted, the two met for the first time at the Toronto airport — and boarded a plane for a game in the Soo that night.

“I just loved his ideas,” Bassin said.

“The first thing he did was change where the coach’s office was in the room. He wanted the office at the front where they came in right into the dressing room. So they could say hello when they came in and goodbye when they left. His door was always open. When they say my door’s always open, that was Kris Knoblauch.”

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Bassin said another thing that stood out was Knoblauch’s binders of practice drills. One day, Bassin walked into the coach’s office and noticed one binder open.

“There were drills on two pages side by side,” Bassin said. “There was a big (two words) in red ink across them — ‘Don’t work.’ I said what the hell’s this about? He said ‘I leave it in so I can remind myself that these are things (he’s tried) that don’t work.”

It’s scenes like this that show why Bassin describes Knoblauch as a “teacher, not a teller and a yeller.”

Knoblauch left the Otters to become an assistant with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2017 and has been a head coach in Hartford since 2019 — with a brief call up to run the Rangers when David Quinn was on the COVID-19 protocol list.

Like with many of his former players and coaches, Bassin remains close to Knoblauch and McDavid. He was in San Francisco last week to see his son and took a trip to nearby San Jose to catch the Oilers-Sharks game, catching up with McDavid and fellow ex-Otter Connor Brown on the day of a dismal Edmonton loss to the worst team in the NHL.

“There wasn’t a lot of celebration,” Bassin said. “I didn’t talk hockey or anything with them. I just tried to tell them the world wasn’t coming to an end, but it didn’t help. They thought it was.”

Now, Bassin hopes it could be a whole different story with Knoblauch and McDavid together again.

“I give them a very honest shot. I’m totally convinced that they’ll take a run at it,” Bassin said.

But is McDavid healthy…?

“I don’t know this for sure. I’ve never asked (McDavid), never talked to him about it,” Bassin said.

“But if he isn’t 100 per cent healthy — and I don’t know — but if he isn’t, now with this new beginning, I’ll tell you one thing… There’ll be an enthusiasm there because those guys have a respectful relationship.”

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