Can Todd McLellan finally bring coaching stability to the Oilers?

LOS ANGELES – When Todd McLellan walks into the Edmonton Oilers locker room to deliver a message he has more power than the long list coaches who came before him with the team in recent years.

It’s not because McLellan won a Stanley Cup as an assistant coach with the Detroit Red Wings, or because he had a .637 points percentage in seven seasons with the San Jose Sharks. It’s because he knows he has more stability in his job than a lot of his players.

During this trade deadline period, as Oilers players wonder whether they'll stay with the team past Monday, they're all aware McLellan will remain behind the bench for the rest of this year and beyond.

“Not that we didn’t think that of the coaches before, but when a coach comes in that has Todd’s pedigree and his experience, you certainly know he’s going to be here, probably longer than a lot of the players,” forward Taylor Hall said. “That’s definitely a huge thing and you respect that for sure.”

When the Oilers brought in former Boston Bruins boss Peter Chiarelli as general manager last summer, his decision to hire McLellan as coach, helped continue a major shift in the organization’s structure. Since the team took Hall with the No. 1 pick in the 2010 NHL Draft, there had been a perception that the players ran the show in the locker room and a bunch of former Oilers from the team's glory years managed the group into the depths of the league with little accountability. 

Coaches would be hired, fired, brought in from management roles and the team’s minor league affiliates. Meanwhile Edmonton’s young players were propped on pedestals as the centerpieces of different rebuilds and coaches were tasked to adapt to their style. With McLellan it’s the opposite situation. The Oilers players are being told to play McLellan’s way. No questions asked. McLellan is the team's fifth coach since the start of the 2010-11 season.

The results haven’t been there for the Oilers this season. The team is a Western Conference worst 22-34-7 on the season. But for the first time in a while, there’s a feeling that there’s a legitimate long game with the team, and McLellan is a major part of this plan.

“I’ve been here a while now and had like five different coaches,” said forward Jordan Eberle. “It’s nice knowing you have stability in your coaching. You’re going to come back hopefully from another training camp and be right where you left off and not having to start with a new coach.”

McLellan made his mark the first main practice this season. As the team loafed through a drill, McLellan didn’t like what he saw.

“Todd practices a different way,” said Oilers TV analyst Drew Remenda, who was the San Jose Sharks’ analyst for six years with McLellan. “It’s quick, and you have to be into the drill, you have to be ready to go and he stopped the first drill within a minute and got after everybody, and it snapped them to attention.”

Though McLellan had a better coaching pedigree than most of the Oilers recent bench bosses, hiring him was, and still is, a risky proposition. McLellan missed the playoffs just once with the Sharks, a year the team still finished with 89 points in 2014-15. This led to a mutual parting of ways between him and the organization, which opened him up for the Oilers job. Last season was the only time as a professional head coach McLellan had missed the playoffs.

In the past, he could carve a veteran like Joe Thornton or Joe Pavelski in a San Jose practice, and not have to worry about damaging their pride or confidence. He can’t do that in Edmonton, at least not right now with a team that’s missed the playoffs every year since 2005-06.

“The one thing that has been very different as far as watching him with the Oilers as far as watching him with the Sharks, he could snap at guys on the Sharks in practice,” Remenda said. “He had veteran guys and you didn’t have to be as encouraging or as front-and center. You allowed the players to be able to take over on their own."

Remenda brought up a situation in Nashville this season where McLellan called out forward Anton Lander for missing his man on a defensive play in practice.

“Anton,” screamed McLellan. “How do you lose that guy? All you have to do is stay on that guy.”

After this moment, McLellan then turned supportive to the group.

“He lets everybody know, ‘this is where we’re supposed to be’ but then after that he goes, ‘it’s OK, we’re going to get it, it’s all right, stay with it,’” Remenda said.

Said McLellan, “With that we have to become a lot more patient with the players.”

McLellan isn’t the only coach used to winning being thrust into a rebuilding situation. He said he’s talked to former Detroit boss Mike Babcock, now with the Toronto Maple Leafs as well as Columbus Blue Jackets coach John Tortorella to compare notes.

“We probably remind each other that we need to be patient and it’s a different world than what we’re accustomed to,” McLellan said.

Having the right mix of players is crucial, and Edmonton’s winning the draft lottery and taking Connor McDavid in 2015 was seen as the biggest moment in the most recent incarnation of the franchise.

But all good teams can’t win without good management and coaching. The Oilers have held the No. 1 pick in the NHL Draft four times this decade and missed the postseason every year.

As the Oilers players have seen a revolving door with the organization's coaching staff and different rebuilding plans set in motion they get the fact that it takes more than talent alone. It takes a defined structure, and McLellan is part of that.

“The best teams in sports have stability from the top down, and it’s something we have here,” Hall said. “Not that we didn’t have it before, but the changes that were made this summer I think really put that in place, and really cemented the fact that it’s on the player to perform, and if you’re not going to perform, you’re probably not going to be here in the long-term and I think everybody realizes that.”

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Josh Cooper is an editor for Puck Daddy on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at puckdaddyblog@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @joshuacooper