Latest news with #Knoblauch
Time of India
4 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Kris Knoblauch prepares for challenging start to 2025-26 season with new Edmonton Oilers team
Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch (via Getty Images) Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch is set for a challenging beginning to the 2025-26 NHL campaign, one where he and his recently named coaching staff must integrate rapidly while having little margin for turning time into players. With lengthy road journeys on the horizon and minimal space for trial and error, Knoblauch is all about form, preparedness, and early cohesiveness. Edmonton Oilers and head coach Kris Knoblauch seek a quick start despite scheduling stress Having led the Edmonton Oilers to consecutive Stanley Cup Finals and compiled a 94-47-10 regular season mark since joining, Kris Knoblauch heads into this new season with momentum—but also a great deal of expectations. The summer saw major changes on the backbench, with the coaching staff now completely chosen by Knoblauch himself, a change from the blended staff he inherited in the past. This year, Kris Knoblauch will share close collaboration with Assistant Coach Paul McFarland, Goaltending Coach Peter Aubry, and Skills Coach Conor Allen—all three of whom will be tasked with quickly getting on the same page as far as strategy, roles, and systems are concerned. RAW | Kris Knoblauch 07.14.25 Although not yet a top priority, a contract extension for Knoblauch will likely be forthcoming. Other than that, however, his focus is on preparation for the near future, particularly with indications of a tough early-season schedule. The Oilers are slated to have much of the first quarter on the road, with at least two different five-game journeys. With a new penalty kill coach at the helm, moderate adjustments are predicted, although the nucleus of Edmonton's vaunted power play has not changed—one of Edmonton's greatest strengths that Knoblauch will no doubt conserve with little alteration. While Kris Knoblauch's current contract status remains unresolved, it is set to be resolved in August, potentially with a multi-year extension. After all, the last Edmonton Oilers 'coach to guide the team to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals was Glen Sather—a comparison that says a lot. Also read: Oilers' coach Kris Knoblauch addresses speculation about his future with the team as Connor McDavid's return remains uncertain Until then, everybody waits on the ice. With substantial roster consistency and a staff at last of his choosing, Knoblauch has the challenge of getting maximum performance right out of the gate. The journey ahead of him might be challenging, but the foundation is solid, and the sense of urgency is obvious. Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
Time of India
5 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Edmonton Oilers face crucial offseason with Connor McDavid extension and Kris Knoblauch decision pending
McDavid's contract and Knoblauch's future put Oilers in high-stakes offseason (Image via: Getty Images) The Edmonton Oilers have turned into perennial Stanley Cup contenders, reaching the Final in back-to-back seasons (2023–24 and 2024–25). But with head coach Kris Knoblauch entering the final year of his contract and superstar Connor McDavid approaching free agency, the franchise is entering one of its most pivotal offseasons in recent memory. Knoblauch's contract status sparks questions before 2025–26 season Kris Knoblauch took over as Oilers head coach in 2023 and has since transformed the team into a powerhouse in the Western Conference. With two straight Stanley Cup Final appearances under his belt, his leadership has proven instrumental. But as his original three-year contract enters its final season, the lack of a new deal is drawing increased attention. Knoblauch recently addressed his contract situation in a press conference on July 14, revealing there have been only 'slight talks' about an extension. Oilers GM Stan Bowman, however, made it clear he wants to keep the coach in Edmonton. 'I think Kris has done a fantastic job,' Bowman said. 'We've got a lot of things to sort through, but I expect we'll get to that.' RAW | Kris Knoblauch 07.14.25 Knoblauch emphasized that his current focus remains on staffing and roster decisions, including the search for a new goalie coach. Still, he expressed his desire for long-term stability, indicating he'd like to stay in Edmonton. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Audiologists Furious About New $99 Device That Makes Hearing Crystal Clear Again risinghealthtrends Learn More Undo With training camp approaching, both fans and analysts expect extension talks to resume soon. All eyes on Connor McDavid's future in Edmonton While Knoblauch's future is a topic of discussion, the bigger storyline is Connor McDavid's looming free agency. The 28-year-old captain has one year left on his eight-year, $100 million contract, which carries a $12.5 million AAV. If not re-signed before July 1, 2026, he will become an unrestricted free agent, and speculation about his next move is already heating up. Oilers focus on locking in McDavid amid contract uncertainty Stan Bowman has made it clear that re-signing McDavid is the franchise's top priority. 'Connor's the most important player in the League… and our No. 1 priority,' he said. McDavid, however, remains non-committal for now, stating he'll take time to regroup and consult with his agent and family. Also Read: Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews, and Leon Draisaitl's fiancée Celeste Desjardins spotted jamming to Justin Bieber's surprise album 'Swag' McDavid's 2024–25 season was another masterclass, with 100 points in 67 games and a dominant postseason. Oilers fans are holding their breath, hoping both their head coach and franchise cornerstone commit to the team's long-term future. Catch Rani Rampal's inspiring story on Game On, Episode 4. Watch Here!
Edmonton Journal
5 days ago
- Sport
- Edmonton Journal
Will going "off the board" with new coaches cause the Edmonton Oilers to hit or miss their ultimate target
The Edmonton Oilers have re-vamped their coaching staff. Article content Article content In addition to David's work, here are some more basics along with context and quotes from Head Coach Kris Knoblauch: Article content Paul Coffey is not returning as Defence coach, returning instead to his previous role upstairs. Article content Article content 'We'll still have conversations with Paul, and Paul will still give us his insight on how the team is playing and what we could be doing'. Article content Article content Assistant Coach Mark Stuart had his contract extended and his duties expanded to include the Defence corps in addition to the Penalty Kill. Kris Knoblauch spoke to the fact that in between good runs the kill struggled mightily at times this past season: Article content 'There will be changes to our system, (and) we will be doing things a little bit differently'. Article content Paul McFarland will join Knoblauch behind the bench, help coach the forwards and be responsible for the much-vaunted Oilers Power Play: Article content 'Just the fact that he has been running an NHL power play for many years, started in Toronto, Florida and then Seattle'. Article content McFarlane coached the WHL's Calgary Hitmen last year. He had previous OHL experience in Kingston and Oshawa, where he and Knoblauch coached against one another. They also briefly coached together for Hockey Canada. Article content Article content And a new Goalie Coach also arrives in the person of Peter Aubry from Omaha and Division I College. Aubry also has eight years of experience in the Chicago organization as a developmental coach. Obviously, G.M. Stan Bowman has a take on his abilities. Here is Knoblauch's: Article content 'He'll be able to push those guys and uh…you know, bring a different perspective and hopefully you know elevate them to get those to play at their best more often'. Article content Finally, Connor Allen is the new Team Skills coach. Article content Some big picture thoughts: Article content -It is highly appropriate for Kris Knoblauch to put his own stamp on his coaching staff. He had inherited practically everyone. But having coached the club to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals appearances, he has earned the right. Article content -Having one less coach on the bench is significant. One less set of eyes, yes, but also one less voice that might complicate communication, between the staff yes but also between staff and players. I think this point may be a hidden benefit. There is an old saying 'nothing kills greatness like consensus'.
Hamilton Spectator
6 days ago
- Sport
- Hamilton Spectator
Coffey won't return as Oilers assistant coach, Schwartz out as goaltending coach
EDMONTON - A shakeup behind Edmonton Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch had the NHL club changing goalie coaches and Hall of Fame defenceman Paul Coffey shifting from behind the bench to an upstairs adviser role. Paul McFarland came on board as a power-play specialist after Glen Gulutzan's departure to become head coach of the Dallas Stars, Peter Aubry replaced Dustin Schwartz as goalie coach and Connor Allen will serve in a skills development role. The club stated Monday that Coffey returns to his role as a special adviser to ownership and hockey operations after a more hands-on role as an assistant coach in charge of defencemen. Assistant coach Mark Stuart's contract was extended to continue as penalty kill specialist, while Stuart also assumed responsibility of the defencemen. Knoblauch inherited Coffey, Schwartz and Stuart as assistants when he took over for Jay Woodcroft as head coach of the Oilers on Nov. 12, 2023. Coffey, a four-time Stanley Cup champion, replaced Oilers assistant Dave Manson when Knoblauch was hired. The Oilers have since reached the Stanley Cup final in back-to-back years. Edmonton fell to the Florida Panthers in six games this year and in seven games in 2024. 'First of all, we'll talk about Paul. Very fortunate to be working with him for the two years,' Knoblauch said Monday on a virtual media conference call. 'I was happy to be working with him in that first year and we weren't sure if he was coming back for the second year, but luckily for us, he did decide to come back. 'Throughout the year, we have a lot of conversations, we added a lot to the coaching staff and then got to the point where you're not sure when he was going to step back and just have another role within the organization or what he was doing before. You got to that point where that the change was going to happen. 'We'll still have conversations with Paul and Paul will still give us his insight on how the team's playing, what we could be doing, which will be a great benefit for our coaching staff, especially with so many new guys coming in.' Knoblauch, who has a year remaining on his contract, will have two assistants on the bench with him next season instead of three. Led by Leon Draisaitl, whose 399 career power-play goals ranks fifth among active NHL players, Edmonton boasted the league's top power play for several years until a drop-off this past season. McFarland was head coach of the Western Hockey League's Calgary Hitmen after three years as a Seattle Kraken assistant from the team's expansion year in 2021 to 2024. The 39-year-old was also previously an assistant with the Florida Panthers and Toronto Maple Leafs. 'He's been running an NHL power play for many years, started in Florida, Toronto, and then Seattle,' Knoblauch stated. 'Power-play success is determined a lot with the personnel that you have. He's done a heck of a job on getting the most out of the personalities he's had, but also very strong is the success that he had with those good power plays in Toronto and Florida. 'He'll be able to bring that over and be able to have a good strong working relationship with the players that we have on our team right now.' Edmonton's penalty kill, integral to reaching the Cup final in 2024, was mediocre in 2025. 'During the playoffs, it was underperforming, so this conversation about changing things up has been ongoing for many, many months and there will be changes to our system,' Knoblauch said. Edmonton's goaltending ran hot and cold in the playoffs. Stuart Skinner started 15 of 24 post-season games this year, but Calvin Pickard was in net for six in a row and nine overall. Schwartz was Edmonton's goalie coach for over a decade, but the Oilers aim for more consistency under 48-year-old Aubry, who was an associate coach at Nebraska-Omaha (NCAA) for two seasons. He also spent eight seasons (2015-16 to 2023-24) as the Chicago Blackhawks' developmental goaltending coach as well as the goaltending coach for the team's AHL affiliate in Rockford. 'It was a very, very difficult decision to make that change, but in the organization, we're always looking at ways that we can get better,' Knoblauch explained. 'We're looking for ways to push our goaltenders and make them better. There's times where they're exceptional. There's other times where we were wanting a little bit more from them. With Peter, he'll be able to push those guys and bring a different perspective and hopefully, elevate them to get those guys to play at their best more often.' Allen, 35, spent last season with the United States' under-17 team and recently worked in skill development with the Sioux City Musketeers. The Oilers also confirmed a contract extension for video coach Noah Segall. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 14, 2025.
Yahoo
09-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
CoreWeave's $9 billion acquisition of Core Scientific gives an AI roadmap for struggling Bitcoin miners
In March, the AI data center company CoreWeave went public, and its share price quadrupled amid the broader artificial intelligence boom. But AI wasn't always the company's focus. It started in 2016 as a specialist in crypto mining—a term for using computers to process transactions and secure a cryptocurrency's network. Amid crypto's volatile ups and downs, CoreWeave shifted its business to AI in 2019. Now, CoreWeave has helped another crypto mining operation fully pivot. On Monday, the company announced its plans to acquire Core Scientific, a publicly traded Bitcoin miner. The acquisition, which CoreWeave said is expected to close in the fourth quarter, was an all-stock deal for about $9 billion. The deal follows months of announced contracts between CoreWeave and Core Scientific, in which the AI company paid the Bitcoin miner for an increasingly larger share of its processing power. And it comes as Bitcoin mining has become less profitable due to increased competition and decreased margins. Amid the tightening sector, other Bitcoin mining operations have also lent their data warehouses out to AI companies, which require large amounts of computing power for tasks such as training large language models. Still, Core Scientific's pivot underlines the increasingly clear roadmap for Bitcoin miners: dedicate warehouses once reserved for Bitcoin mining servers to servers designed for AI. 'It kind of reinforces the thesis that there is probably some shortage when it comes to power,' Brett Knoblauch, an analyst at Cantor Fitzgerald, told Fortune, in reference to AI companies' hunger for computing power. At their core, Bitcoin miners are data center operators. They build large warehouses to house thousands of computers designed to support Bitcoin's network. Meanwhile, as much as 20% of global data-center demand comes from artificial intelligence, according to recent research in the academic journal Joule. And about 40% of existing AI data centers will reach their power limits in 2027, predicted the analytics firm Gartner. That hunger for power has AI specialists like CoreWeave looking to build out its fleets of computers to account for rising demand. 'The only place where you can get power and size is the miners,' said Knoblauch. Core Scientific isn't the only Bitcoin miner shifting to AI. In 2023, Hive Blockchain Technologies changed its name to Hive Digital Technologies and said it planned to use some of its computers for AI. In December, TeraWulf struck a deal with Core42. And in April, the crypto company Galaxy, which has a Bitcoin mining division, said it planned to work with CoreWeave. 'Pivoting to HPC compute has been a key theme among BTC Miners with strong energy asset portfolios,' Brian Dobson, an analyst at Clear Street, told Fortune. (HPC refers to high-performance computing, a catch-all term that includes AI.) Larger data center providers, including hyperscalers like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, haven't struck similar deals with a Bitcoin miner, said Knoblauch, the Cantor Fitzgerald analyst. 'The only one that's been super aggressive and taking up capacity is CoreWeave,' he added. Hyperscalers tend to conduct due diligence on their vendors for longer periods than more nimble upstarts like CoreWeave, he said. And companies like Google or Amazon may be skeptical of Bitcoin miners' ability to convert their simpler facilities into more sophisticated AI data centers, he added. Now that CoreWeave, one of the few firms taking chances on miners, has committed to Core Scientific, it may be more difficult for Bitcoin mining operations to replicate Core Scientific's success. Still, Knoblauch is optimistic that miners, who have built businesses on finding and using cheap electricity to power warehouses of servers, can still ride the energy-intensive AI boom. 'Miners are relatively unique in that they are experts when it comes to power,' he said. 'And they have a lot of it.' This story was originally featured on Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
