The calendar has turned to August, and with it we are now even closer to the beginning of the 2025-26 Hockey season. Before we could get our calendars turned forward though, Edmonton Oil Kings General Manager Kirt Hill had one last piece of offseason business to finalize. As you may have already heard, on July 31st the Oil Kings announced the 6th Head Coach of the modern iteration of the franchise. Replacing coach Luke Pierce for the coming season will be former Kelowna Rockets head coach, former Regina Pat legend, and most importantly, former Edmonton Oiler captain Jason Smith. Kyle Chipchura and Devan Praught will be returning to the team as Assistant Coaches for the season to fill out the bench team trying to follow up last season’s dramatic first round exit with a deeper playoff run this year.

So, what does this mean for the season? Opinions and Early Reactions have leaned to the side of Optimism. Edmonton hockey fans loved Jason Smith, and are generally excited to see him come back here. Although the more cautious fans, such as my colleague Len Nunes, are wary of accepting his hiring on first glance alone. Len brings some valid questions to the discussion:

“Was Smith’s hiring based on merit and not the publicity a former Oiler brings? 

Could Smith be a nepotist hiring of the Oilers “Old Boys Club”? 

Were there other preferred targets who turned down the position because they were not familiar with the incumbent assistant coaches, or was Smith always the target?”

I choose to base my insights on evaluating the facts, more than speculation. So I pose the question, What does Jason Smith actually bring to this team and what should fans be excited for? Let’s take a look at his merits.

Jason’s Defensive Prowess

Every Edmonton hockey fan can attest to Jason’s crucial role on those Edmonton Oiler teams of the early 2000s, most particularly the 2006 Stanley Cup finals run. The man affectionately nicknamed “Gator”  was a defensive stalwart who formed a fearsome top pair on that playoff run, alongside Chris Pronger, that had every team terrified of the Oilers “oil slick” defense (basically the trap, but Oilers fans hated the term ‘trap’). Before and after that 2006 season, though, Gator was still a regularly brutal defender to play against. A stay-at-home defender who regularly found himself paired with more offensive partners like Pronger, Tom Poti, and Eric Brewer he allowed his partners ample opportunity to jump into the rush knowing he would always be covering behind them. Smith finished his time in Edmonton with a +50 plus/minus, averaging over 21 minutes on ice per game, and very rarely missed any games. 

Smith’s defensive success isn’t tied to his time in Edmonton only. In his WHL playing career he was once named the WHL’s Top Defensive Player as a member of the Regina Pats. He was a first round draft pick, an immediate NHL player with minimal time spent in the AHL, and an impact defender throughout his career.

In his coaching years, he has developed numerous defensive prospects into high NHL Draft picks. In Kelowna, he worked with first round picks in Cal Foote, Lucas Johansen, and Lassi Thomson, as well as second round pick Kaeden Korczak. In Prince George he got to work with Ethan Samson, who was drafted in the 6th round by the Philadelphia Flyers, and then Jason got to continue working with him in Lehigh Valley for the past 2 years. A key feature that Jason can lean on, is seeing how a player like Samson was in the WHL and then being there to witness the level-up to the AHL. An underrated piece of knowledge that he can now pass on to the Oil Kings players looking to take that next step, and what it will take in today’s game to get themselves to that next level.

This is a lot of data and statistics, all to say that Jason’s truest benefit to the Edmonton Oil Kings will be to the Defensive players who get to learn from him. Blake Fiddler and Parker Alcos already have their paths to the NHL in front of them, but they can learn a ton from a year working with a player of Smith’s caliber. Ethan MacKenzie and Rhys Pederson could still have bright futures in front of them, and Jason Smith is the man to help them reach that next level of their potential. Noa Ta’amu and Josh Lee should be elated at the opportunity to spend their draft year learning from a true veteran of the position. Ta’amu in particular could really use a coach who is going to help him tap into that grit and integrity on the ice, and learn to become a stay-at-home power defender. With his size and strength, Noa can play Smith’s game even better than Smith ever did. And then there’s the 2025 WHL Entry Draft prospects in Holden Wouters and Christopher Kokkoris, who went through Development Camp without Jason there, but can now get excited at coming to a system that will be focused on producing NHL-caliber defensemen.

Once a Leader, Always a Leader

Jason Smith’s defensive acumen is a statistician’s dream, but his intangible skills may be even more important to the success of the Edmonton Oil Kings. Jason Smith spent his career as a leader everywhere he went. A captain in Regina of the WHL, he wore a letter on his jersey for almost his entire Oilers career, and then walked into the “C” in his only year in Philadelphia before retirement. Jason is a leader of men, a leader of locker rooms, and a leader in his community. He has had success motivating and leading the players around him at all levels of hockey, and only continues to improve with every added year of experience. 

The Edmonton Oil Kings have a giant hole in their leadership heading into the 2025-26 Season, and there’s nobody I’d rather have to guide the next generation of leaders on this team. Marshall Finnie and Josh Mori have both graduated from the CHL and headed off to pursue their NCAA careers. Gracyn Sawchyn may be on his way to a spot in the Florida Panthers franchise, if they don’t return him for a final junior season. Gavin Hodnett as the captain could be the only player to wear a letter last year that gets to return for this season. Nothing against Hodnett and his abilities, but that playoff collapse last year could have used some leadership to step up and right the ship. Smith will bring that leadership.

Smith can make his own decisions on the Oil Kings captaincy for the season, but assuming Gavin does retain the “C” I’m sure Jason will help him grow and understand how to be a leader on a team with a 3-1 Series lead and motivate his teammates to close out a series.

The opportunities for Assistant Captains are there too, guys like Joe Iginla, Fiddler, Alcos, Ta’amu, Lukas Sawchyn, and Kayden Stroeder to develop leadership skills is invaluable for their career advancement. To develop as a leader of people is not an easy trait to learn, but there’s no one I’d rather see doing it than a man like Jason Smith. 

What About the Assistants?

Jason Smith was asked in his introductory press conference and interviews, “what will his staff role divide look like?” With an existing staff in place, what does Jason see and expect from the returning staff that he will now be in charge of? Jason’s response to these questions was to praise both Chipchura and Praught for their work, and suggested he will be dividing the roles with Chipchura looking after the Powerplay and Praught taking on the Penalty Kill responsibilities. 

For context, last season’s Oil Kings had the 14th best Power Play (22.9%) which was slightly below the WHL average, but they had the #2 ranked Penalty Kill (81.8%). Chip will have some work to do to improve on those Powerplay numbers this year, but it looks like Praught had a pretty good handle on the Penalty Kill last year. 

That being said, the personnel changes will make for some interesting adjustments on both sides. The Penalty Kill was often being headed by departees Cole Miller and Roan Woodward, and could see some new faces in position to implement Praughts system. The powerplay will be another year older and another year wiser, with players like the Sawchyns, Adam Jecho, Miroslav Holinka, Fiddler, and Alcos all bringing back the experience of being part of NHL Training camps for the season. 

Chip and Praught are safe for this season, they have their roles to play and are both professionals. The chemistry with Smith will be interesting to watch throughout the year, and if Smith decides to take a more hands on approach with either side of the special teams. Particularly the PK since he has dealt with it in Lehigh Valley for the past few seasons. Could our #2 PK get even more stifling? It sure makes life a whole lot easier when you don’t have to worry about taking penalties because your kill shuts down the opposing Powerplay so effectively.

The Total Package

What does this mean for the coming season? Well, it means that the special teams may have some growing pains but shouldn’t see an overall drastic change for good or for bad. The defense should excel with a defensive minded coach, and should be able to grow on finishing last season with the 6th fewest Goals Against in the league. Top names, and top prospects should continue to make the Oil Kings defense a stifling unit to play against and make even the top players have to work for their goals.

Goaltending is in flux this season, as of this writing we don’t yet know who will be the #1 Goalie, but whoever it is will have a much easier role to fill with a defense that makes the goaltender’s job easy. Ethan Simcoe and Parker Snell can work out who is the #1 Guy, but they should both be able to find success in Smith’s system.

The forwards are the only remaining question mark. NHL-Signed players, Top Draft Prospects ready to step up, and new faces coming onto the team should make for an exciting year, but how do they fit with Jason Smith? The good news, is that Smith does not appear to have had a negative effect on the forwards in his system. In 3 years as Head Coach in Kelowna, his teams produced 5 different 70 Plus players in the first 2 years being there. Every forward that Smith coached over those 3 years saw their points production increase year over year, even as the team overall fell in the standings. The year after Smith was fired, nearly every single player on Smith’s team saw a severe Statistical regression with him gone.

Regardless of anything else, it’s an exciting time to be an Oil Kings fan and I, personally, am amped to return to The Kingdom for the upcoming season.