No McDavid, no problem: Kris Knoblauch's Otters on top of OHL

When it comes to winning hockey games, the Erie Otters have yet to be impacted by Connor McDavid’s departure to the Edmonton Oilers.

Despite the off-season graduation of their all-world centre, the Otters are atop the OHL standings with a 25-3-1 record after reaching the league final last season.

“We know how to win,” said centre Dylan Strome, the OHL’s defending scoring champion. “We’ve built a winning culture over the last couple of years. When you go into every game expecting to win, it’s huge.”

And the man who instilled that winning culture in the players is their coach.

Even without McDavid, Kris Knoblauch once again has his team among the elite in junior hockey.

Knoblauch is quick to deflect praise. He attributes the Otters’ success this season to the improved play of goaltender Devin Williams, the mobile defencemen and players like Kyle Maksimovich and Taylor Raddysh for helping lessen the void of McDavid’s loss.

“Missing Connor, that’s beyond words. You can’t replace anybody like that,” he said. “But guys step up.”

But those who know the 37-year-old believe it’s his ability as a coach that has allowed the Otters to carry on nearly seamlessly.

“He’s a real intelligent guy,” said Peter Anholt, general manager of the WHL’s Lethbridge Hurricanes. “He gets his point across in a real professional manner. He’s a good communicator, but he understands the skill player and he also understands the blue-collar player.”

It was Anholt who gave Knoblauch his first coaching position, an assistant job on his staff with the Prince Albert Raiders in 2006.

Anholt remembered watching Knoblauch in the WHL with Red Deer, Edmonton, Kootenay and Lethbridge as an honest, strong, hard-working winger during the late 1990s. When Knoblauch continued his playing career at the University of Alberta and obtained his teaching degree, it struck a chord with Anholt.

“You felt that that was going to carry him on to be a good coach, something the players could relate with,” he said. “He certainly proved that was correct.”

After a year in Prince Albert, Knoblauch joined the Kootenay Ice as an assistant. He spent three years in that role before assuming the head coaching duties when Mark Holick made the jump to the AHL.

Knoblauch guided the Ice to a WHL title in his first season as head coach. His team toppled the likes of the Brayden Schenn-led Saskatoon Blades and Ryan Johansen’s Portland Winterhawks en route to a 2011 Memorial Cup appearance.

It was at that tournament, played in Mississauga, Ont., where he caught Sherry Bassin’s eye.

“I watched his team in the Memorial Cup,” said the then-Otters general manager. “The team takes on the character of its leadership, its coaching staff. They had high character and that tells you about him.”

Bassin kept tabs on Knoblauch and, when he was fired by the Ice after the 2011-12 season, Bassin called him up.

Both men are from small-town Saskatchewan – Bassin is from Seamans and Knoblauch is from Imperial – and Bassin came away impressed with Knoblauch’s humble nature, respectfulness and accountability.

So Bassin knew just who to turn to when he fired former NHL coach Robbie Ftorek in November 2012.

The Otters, who finished with 10 wins the previous season to earn the right to draft McDavid, were off to a 7-15-5 start. They would win just 19 times in 2012-13.

But those first few months in Erie served as a lesson for Knoblauch.

“I was here for half a season and wanted to play the same type of hockey that we were so successful in Kootenay with,” he said. “But after analyzing all the skill that we had, I gave my players a lot more leeway with the puck and making plays. In the long run I feel like it’s paid off.”

“He’s extremely adaptable. He coaches what he has,” added Bassin. “He doesn’t just make them fit the mould. That’s the sign of a good coach.”

Not even Knoblauch expected to go from 19 victories to 52, the first of two consecutive 50-plus win seasons. A third is likely on the way this season, even without McDavid.

“If you look at his record when he’s coached the Otters, regardless of who’s on the team, it’s pretty remarkable,” Strome said.

But it doesn’t surprise Bassin.

What Bassin noticed was a coach that arrived to the rink at 4 a.m. in order to plan to beat the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in the playoffs. It was the preparation that helped him knock off Saskatoon and Portland back in 2011.

Hockey Canada tabbed him to coach one of their under-17 teams last month, too.

“I think he’s going to coach in the NHL some day,” said Bassin, who’s had his shoulder replaced and undergone hernia and eye surgeries since leaving the Otters. “He’s got that kind of ability. He understands human behaviour.”

There has already been interest, according to the Edmonton Journal’s Jim Matheson who reported that Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock interviewed Knoblauch for a job on his staff over the summer.

Knoblauch makes no secret of wanting to get to the NHL.

But, for now, his focus is with the Otters. Because – even without McDavid – they’re doing just fine.

“I believe there’s a lot more success to be had in Erie,” Knoblauch said. “It’s not like you have a good team or two good teams and things are going to fall off. We’ve had three really successful years and I think we have more to come in the future.”

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