Oilers Fire Ramsay and Acton

This just in! The Edmonton Oilers announced, via social media, that the club has fired assistant coaches Craig Ramsay and Keith Acton.

The moves comes just a mere 48 hours after it was reported that Todd Nelson was considering staying on board in Edmonton. This has just been the latest in what has been a complete off-ice rebranding of the Edmonton Oilers franchise. Everyone from the POHO (President of hockey operations) down to the coaching staff, with exception of the assistant GM’s, has either been relieved of their duties or repositioned into a different role within the organization. Ramsay is a former NHL head coach in Atlanta, a role he lost when the team migrated north to Winnipeg, and was in charge of running the Oilers defence and heading up the teams power play, these two aspects were rather underwhelming this past season. The move that brought him to Edmonton last June was highly praised as it was thought that Ramsay brought a wealth of experience to rather inexperienced group. Acton, on the other hand, was brought in along with Dallas Eakins in the summer of 2013. Keith coached with Eakins in the AHL while with the Toronto Marlies, and this move should come as no surprise as he was only brought to Edmonton because of his connection to Dallas Eakins.

As I mentioned above, the Craig Ramsay hiring was a highly praised one at the time. Myself, and many other, thought that he brought along a lot of wisdom and experience to a staff that included to NHL sophomores in Eakins and Acton. Upon his arrival to Edmonton, he was given responsibility’s with the teams defensive group as well as the power play units. After only one season at this position the team seemed to regress in their defensive game and their power play was ranked a woeful 28th place, despite possessing high-end offensive talent. The reason he got fired has less to do with his performance on the team rather than it has to do with the current state of the franchise. He still held some considerable value to the franchise in my eyes and if you could put together the right mix of players, he would succeed. It has recently been reported that Todd Nelson was mulling over a possible return to the Oilers bench to serve as an assistant. In my last article, addressing this Nelson report, I predicted that management would replace Ramsay in favour of Nelson because of the drastic change in atmosphere that occurred around the team while he was in the intern position. I am not saying that Nelson will be taking over Ramsay’s job but, I think the Oilers are making room for a hire of the same magnitude. So with that, so long Craig, you won’t be out of the job for long.

Acton was brought on to the Oilers because of the familiarity he had with Dallas Eakins. This was a move I’ve been anticipating for the better part of the year, ever since Eakins was waved on out. I think I can confidently predict that Acton will be replaced with Jay Woodcraft. Woodcraft worked alongside McLellan in San Jose and the two share a similar coaching philosophy. To put it in a more outright way, Eakins’ baggage will most likely be replaced by McLellan’s baggage.

Makes for an interesting evening. What do you think of the moves? Will Todd Nelson return to the Oilers bench, and if not, who would you pick up? Feel free to answer these questions in the comments. Follow me on twitter @CrazyOilersFan to talk some Oilers!

As always, McDavid.