The Oilers and Kings still have not been given permission to speak with Bruce Cassidy, even after Elliotte Friedman said this morning that neither team had clearance to contact him yet. Friedman said last night, after the game, he was told the same thing: the Oilers and Kings could not talk to Cassidy.
That leaves Cassidy in a holding pattern while two of the NHL's most watched coaching searches wait on a decision they do not control. Friedman said he does not believe Cassidy is turning down requests and expects he would be open to conversations with teams, but Vegas has full control of the situation right now and Cassidy is not a candidate for the Kings until permission is granted.
Friedman also called Cassidy the top candidate available and said he would be of “a ton of interest” to the Kings if he becomes available to be hired. The timing matters because Toronto made a coaching change earlier today, and Craig Berube became available as a result, adding another experienced name to a market that was already moving fast.
The way NHL coaching contracts are structured explains why the process is not as simple as naming a target and making an offer. Head-coach deals remain valid through their full term even after a firing, and teams that want to hire a fired coach may still have to work through the organization that let him go. In Cassidy's case, that could also mean the hiring team may need to take on some or all of his salary depending on the new terms.
Behind the scenes, the Kings' search is still active. Ken Holland said his original list was somewhere between 5 and 8 names, and he did not want the process to balloon into 20 different interviews. That is the shape of the market now: a small group of candidates, a few clubs chasing the same names and at least one of them, Cassidy, still locked behind another team's control.
For the Kings and Oilers, the next step is not a hiring decision but permission. Until Vegas opens the door, Cassidy remains the most coveted name on the board, and every club interested in him has to wait for someone else to move first.
