NHL: Viveiros becomes co-coach of the Edmonton Oilers

Former Austrian ice hockey team coach Manny Viveiros has got a job in the National Hockey League (NHL). As the Edmonton Oilers announced on Friday, Viveiros will be one of three assistants on the staff of head coach Todd McLellan. The 52-year-old led the Swift Current Broncos to the Western Hockey League (WHL) title this season.

Viveiros has won the championship four times as a player with Villacher SV and played 21 international matches for Austria. The Canadian-born coach led KAC 2008/09 to the title and was Austrian team boss from 2011 to 2014. “He’s in his fifties, but he’s an aspiring coach. He has talents that haven’t been tapped yet,” McLellan praised him in an official statement.

The exact distribution of tasks in the trainer team is still open. McLellan mentioned, however, that Viveiros could watch the match from the stands at the beginning and only change behind the gang in the final third.

Edmonton is five-time Stanley Cup Champion, but his last success so far is a while back. In 1990, Mark Messier led the Oilers to a final victory over the Boston Bruins. The flagship of the current team, which clearly missed the play-offs last season, is the Canadian young star Connor McDavid. The 21-year-old won the “Art Ross Trophy” for the best scorer in the NHL basic round for the second time in a row this year.