Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Kevin Lowe isn’t saying Sutter wants the Oilers job, he just doesn’t see why Sutter wouldn’t want the Oilers job

Brent Sutter

To talk about hiring a coach that’s still under contract is a NHL no-no. So full marks to Oilers president Kevin Lowe, who artfully discussed Brent Sutter’s interest in Edmonton’s head coaching gig -- without really discussing Brent Sutter’s interest in Edmonton’s head coaching gig.

‘I don’t see why he wouldn’t want to coach the Oilers,” Lowe told Bill Beacon of the Canadian Press. “Brent’s been a good coach. We’ve seen him recently. He’s Albertan. He knows the Battle of Alberta well.”

Technically speaking, Sutter is still property of the Calgary Flames -- even though Calgary GM Jay Feaster already conducted Sutter’s farewell cake-cutting ceremony. This means Sutter is still off-limits for discussion, even though all signs point to the Oilers being very interested in his services.

Lowe was Team Canada’s GM at the recently-concluded World Hockey Championships and chiefly responsible for selecting Sutter as head coach. Coincidentally, Team Canada was stockpiled with Oilers -- Devan Dubnyk, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins -- as well as Everett defenseman Ryan Murray, a guy Edmonton has targeted with the No. 1 pick at the 2012 NHL Entry Draft.

That said, Lowe made it clear the topic of the Oilers gig didn’t come up at the Worlds.

“With the sacredness of the world championships and everything it means, [Sutter] didn’t need any distractions,” Lowe explained. “He’d just come from the Flames, making the mutual decision that he wasn’t going to continue to work with them, and he had a new coaching staff and team to learn in a short time.’'

Lowe also said Edmonton will “ideally” have a coach in place before the June draft.