LateNightOilFan: This is the scouting report on Krueger according to one of my Swiss poster friends:****** Begin Quote******He did a great work with our national team, developing it to be a stable top 8 nation in the world.But at the end critics were held against him because we almost never past the quarter finals in a world tounament and because of playing a very defensive system.Anyway before his era we were not a legitimate top team which changed under his command. After 10 years it was time to change and now Simpson (who won the victoria cup and the european champions league with the Zürich Lions) have a good base to work with and can develop the offensive side of our team since the defense is in place.Finally ,and even if I repeat it, under his coaching the swiss gain respect from other nation and now nobody underestimate the Swiss when playing them.I think he will do a great job with the Oilers and he really deserve a chance to prove what he is capable of in the NHL.***** End quote ******

Sounds like a good D type of guy. But with Smith/Buchy do we need that? Renney is also a conservative kind of a coach. As Racki rightly asked the other day, who is coaching our PP?

****** Begin Quote******
He did a great work with our national team, developing it to be a stable top 8 nation in the world.
But at the end critics were held against him because we almost never past the quarter finals in a world tounament and because of playing a very defensive system.
Anyway before his era we were not a legitimate top team which changed under his command. After 10 years it was time to change and now Simpson (who won the victoria cup and the european champions league with the Zürich Lions) have a good base to work with and can develop the offensive side of our team since the defense is in place.
Finally ,and even if I repeat it, under his coaching the swiss gain respect from other nation and now nobody underestimate the Swiss when playing them.
I think he will do a great job with the Oilers and he really deserve a chance to prove what he is capable of in the NHL.
***** End quote ******

gr8one: I like it. Outside the box hire that was instrumental in making the Swiss program respectable, no small feat there. The guys also a motivational speaker and is apparently a whiz with team building concepts. All good things. I also like that he is Canadian but also brings all of that European experience, which hopefully translates into some fresh ideas and new perspectives.

Those are some good thins to hear. I guess I like it. I wasn’t sure what to think when I first saw this move, but these are good things to hear.