Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

Former Raider to take over Oilers coaching job

Dec 16, 2014 | 8:24 AM

Prince Albert’s Todd Nelson will become be the interim head coach of the Edmonton Oilers, the team announced on Monday.

General manager Craig MacTavish will run the bench as a transitional head coach and will step aside once he feels Nelson knows the team well enough to take over.

MacTavish fired former head coach Dallas Eakins on Monday. Under Eakins’s leadership, the team has lost 15 of its past 16 games.

Nelson played five season with the Raiders from 1985 to 1990.