Edmonton Oilers Dynasty: Players Turned Head Coaches

The old cliche in sports is that often times the best players turn out to be the worst coaches, and Wayne Gretzky, arguably the greatest hockey player ever, is, perhaps, one of the finest examples. The Great One resigned from his position as head coach of the Phoenix Coyotes on Thursday following four unsuccessful seasons behind the bench in the desert.

As a team, the Edmonton Oilers of the 1980s were one of the best collections of talent the NHL has ever seen, winning five Stanley Cups -- four with Gretzky -- between 1983 and 1990.

Four members of those Stanley Cup winning teams, including Gretzky, went onto become head coaches in the NHL with mixed results behind the bench.

Oilers Dynasty: Coaching Records
Coach	Wins	Losses	Ties/OTL
Craig MacTavish	301	252	104
Wayne Gretzky	143	161	24
Jim Playfair	43	29	10
Kevin Lowe	32	16	8
Totals	519	458	146

-- MacTavish had the longest tenure as a bench boss in the NHL, coaching the Oilers for eight seasons before being removed from the position following the 2008-09 campaign. During his stint, the team qualified for the postseason only two times, advancing beyond the first round once when the Oilers went to the Stanley Cup Final in 2005-06, losing to the Carolina Hurricanes in seven games.

-- Playfair only played two games with Oilers as a 19-year-old rookie during the 1983-84 season (he never played a postseason game with the team), but we'll include him anyway. He spent one season as the head coach in Calgary -- 2005-06 -- leading the team to the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference playoffs before losing to the Detroit Red Wings in the first round. He was replaced by Mike Keenan the following season. He will be the head coach of the Abbotsford Heat in 2009.

-- Like Playfair, Lowe was only a head coach for one season in the NHL, leading the Oilers to a 32-16-8 record after replacing Ron Low. The following season he was promoted to general manager, replacing Glen Sather.

-- And then there's Gretzky's rather infamous, and forgettable, tenure with the Phoenix Coyotes.

Just for fun, here's a sampling of some Hall of Fame players from hockey history and how they succeeded -- or failed -- as head coaches in the NHL. Please keep in mind that this isn't every Hall of Fame player that went onto coach in the NHL, just some of the notable ones. And we're really going back in time with some of these examples.

Great Players Don't Always Make Great Coaches
Coach	Wins	Losses	Ties/OTL
Toe Blake	500	255	155
Sid Abel	382	255	159
Lester Patrick	281	216	107
Larry Robinson	209	217	64
Gerry Cheevers	204	126	46
Bob Gainey	194	211	60
Lynn Patrick	165	196	82
King Clancy	86	92	50
Alex Delvecchio	82	131	32
Denis Savard	65	66	16
Doug Harvey	26	32	12
Phil Esposito	24	20	0