Oil Kings name ex-Oilers captain Smith as head coach

Former Edmonton Oilers captain Jason Smith was named the new head coach of the major-junior Edmonton Oil Kings on Thursday.

A former Oilers captain is the new head coach of the Edmonton Oil Kings.

The major-junior Western Hockey League club introduced Jason Smith as its latest bench boss on Thursday morning.

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Smith played 1,008 games over a 15-season National Hockey League career, parts of eight of them with the Edmonton Oilers.

“I am extremely excited to join one of the elite organizations in the CHL (Canadian major-junior umbrella organization),” Smith said in a media release. “Edmonton has been home to me before as a player, and I can’t wait to get back and be a part of the city again.”

Smith replaces Luke Pierce, whose contract the Oil Kings declined to renew in April.

The 51-year-old Calgary native, who went by the nickname ‘Gator’ during his playing career, served as Oilers captain for five years, including the 2005-06 season, when Edmonton advanced through the NHL playoffs to the Stanley Cup final, losing in seven games to the Carolina Hurricanes. Smith also played for the New Jersey Devils (the team that drafted him in 1992), the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Ottawa Senators before retiring in 2009.

He’s been in the coaching ranks since 2014, when he worked as an assistant with the Senators. Smith has previous WHL head-coaching experience, serving as bench boss of the Kelowna Rockets for a little more than two seasons and as an associate coach for the Prince George Cougars. He most recently worked as an assistant coach for Philadelphia’s minor-league affiliate, the American Hockey League’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, the last four seasons.

“Jason is a proven leader and will be a great cultural fit for our staff and players,” Kirt Hill, the Oil Kings’ general manager and president, said in the release. “He brings a wealth of knowledge as not only a coach but through his years of playing experience, and we’re excited for this next chapter of Oil Kings hockey.”

Smith joins an Oil Kings coaching staff that, besides Pierce, is intact from last season, including Kyle Chipchura as an assistant coach and manager of player development, Devan Praught as an assistant coach, Adam Filmon as video coach and manager of hockey operations, and Smith’s former Oilers teammate Ladislav Smid as development coach.