Music: {allcanada} Oilers' Todd Nelson free to look elsewhere

Saturday, May 23, 2015

{allcanada} Oilers' Todd Nelson free to look elsewhere

It's been quite an off-season for the Edmonton Oilers.

The Oilers won the Connor McDavid sweepstakes by landing the No. 1 draft selection in April's NHL Draft Lottery and then took steps towards pulling the organization out of the Western Conference basement by naming Peter Chiarelli general manager and bringing in former San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan.

The addition of McLellan effectively cost interim bench boss Todd Nelson his first NHL head coaching job. During Saturday's edition of "Headlines," Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman reported that Nelson will look for work elsewhere for work, as it is his desire to be a head coach.

The Oilers, who showed improvement under Nelson after he took over from Dallas Eakins in December, would like to retain Nelson's services as either an assistant coach or in another position within the organization.

The club will check in with Nelson in a couple weeks after he explores other opportunities.

The Oilers went 17-25-9 under Nelson to finish the 2014-15 season.