Edmonton – The Edmonton Oilers have fired Steve Tambellini as the organization’s general manager and have hired Craig MacTavish as his replacement.
President of Hockey Operations Kevin Lowe made the announcement during a news conference Monday morning.
You can watch the full news conference below:
“We believe our club needs a change in leadership. Despite showing areas of improvement, we are not where we want to be right now,” says Lowe.
“We need to get better immediately.”
Tambellini was hired by the organization in 2008, but the Oilers have failed to make the playoff during his reign as G.M.
The end to his reign comes after the Oilers lost their fifth straight game Saturday night, a 4-1 defeat to the Calgary Flames at Rexall Place.
“Losing five in a row, where we are, all of it goes into the decision,” says Lowe.
MacTavish will be working with Scott Howson who is taking over MacTavish’s former position as senior vice president of hockey operations. This is Howson’s second stint with the Oilers after serving as the Columbus Blue Jacket’s general manager for six years.
MacTavish says he’s “an impatient guy” and is ready to make important decisions to improve the team.
“Make no mistake, we’re going to do bold things and competitive things to get us to a level where we’re not only highly competitive but we’re challenging for the Stanley Cup,” says MacTavish.
MacTavish stepped down as head coach of the organization in 2009, after coaching the Oilers for nearly a decade. He says he’s prepared to deal with skepticism over his hiring.
“I’m not looking at what happened in the past, where I’ve come from in the past. But my sole objective is to come in here and add something to the future of this club,” says MacTavish.
Lowe is defended his decision to fire Tambellini and hire MacTavish. He’s also defending the decisions the organization has made since it last made the playoffs in 2006; a post-season run that ended with the Oilers losing in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals.
“We chased a dream for a few years for our fan base, like a lot of teams do, and then at some point in that time frame we realized that’s a bad plan and we made a change,” said Lowe.
“We’re finishing year three of that plan.”
Edmonton sits eight points out of a playoff spot in the western conference, with seven games remaining, putting them in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the seventh straight year.
Comments