TORONTO -- Ralph Krueger is the head coach of Team Europe at the World Cup of Hockey, taking time away from his day job as the chairman of Southampton FC of the Premier League. He was previously the head coach of the Swiss national ice hockey team and the Edmonton Oilers during the 2012-13 NHL season. (The Oilers fired him via Skype while he was sitting on his daughter's bed.) He also served as an adviser for Team Canada during its successful gold-medal run at the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014.
Krueger sat down with ESPN.com on Wednesday for an exclusive interview.
A lot of us watching you in action here, one of our major questions has been, how could things have not worked out for this guy in Edmonton? What went wrong with the Oilers?
When you're a head coach, there are always multiple levels. One would be, first and foremost, your knowledge of the game and your ability to work with the team. But you always need to fit culturally. I have a certain style culturally as a leader. Obviously, I was a mismatch, because we were moving on the hockey side in the right direction. There was no question the group was just beginning to jell out of that lockout season. And the organization decided to go with a different style of leadership. I did not take that personally ever, which was extremely important in my life after. I'm a project person; I'm a person who likes to finish projects. I'm very loyal to the projects that I commit to, and that was the first one in my life as a leader that was cut abruptly short. But the world has been kind to me after that. I would say I was just a cultural mismatch to where that club wanted to go.
You have spoken about how your positive attitude coming out of that maybe allowed that phone call from Mike Babcock to happen. [Babcock invited Krueger to join the Canadian men's hockey team in an advisory role before the Sochi Olympics.]
Oh, for sure. There is no way he calls me if I turn negative on that. People always watch for your reaction in those situations. ... I just remember making a conscious decision right there and then to move forward. I tell everybody that winners are born in difficult times. That was the most difficult situation I'd ever been in as a leader. I'm sure Mike felt that energy over here and then offered me the Sochi role, which kind of catapulted me into a lot of what's happened since then.
In hindsight, how important was Mike's phone call in terms of your career?
Three months later, Southampton approaches me. Southampton might not have happened if I didn't take on the Canadian job. ... I said, "You know what, I'm going to do this. I want to win a gold medal." So my full focus became: "I want to go home with a gold medal from the Olympic Games." That gave me the space to be available for Southampton. If Mike doesn't pause my career, the space for everything else isn't made. Team Europe doesn't happen, Southampton doesn't happen. You wouldn't know it at the time, but because I committed to [the Olympics], I took a step away instead of just taking the next job, which most guys do. Most guys just jump into the next job and then try to work back to being a head coach. I just didn't feel that was the right thing for me. I was too invested in Edmonton. There was pain, of course. And the main pain was how much I'd committed to those kids for three years, and how close I was to them. I only realize it now when I run into [Jeff] Petry on the streets of Montreal or [Ryan] Nugent-Hopkins' parents in the hotel here, and we're embracing each other three years later. I'm realizing now -- I saw Taylor Hall at the world championships and Jordan Eberle -- I see how close we actually were. That was the reason I couldn't coach anywhere else. I was just too connected to those kids.
What made you say yes to Southampton? Apart from the passion of the fan bases and the importance of the sports to their national cultures, we're talking about pretty different games. What made you say yes?
After 25 years of coaching in hockey, and again the scars from the Edmonton experience -- I'd be lying if I said there weren't scars there -- the freshness of it, the difficulty of it, and the growth opportunity of it. ... There was a fear there that kind of excited me. It was crazy that I took that on as a non-football person. The club was in complete, total disarray in regard to its leadership structure. Its culture was a mess at that time. My wife wasn't really sure what I was doing. I think part of me throwing myself into that, I was doing Sochi and the Olympics, so I didn't feel the risks were terminal because it was parallel. I started in October, the Olympics were in February, but we didn't announce my chairmanship until March. Somehow the comfort of Sochi and still being involved in hockey gave me the courage to take this on. I was thinking if in six months the English drive me out of the country, I shouldn't be dead here as a professional. It was a calculated risk. Sochi gave me that opportunity to dip my foot into those waters. As I kind of hoped, by winning the gold there were some NHL offers, but by that time I felt Southampton was going to work. It's the first time I've actually talked about this. I'm realizing now that Sochi was a big reason why I didn't -- it's not like I just dove in at the end of the pool. I kind of played in two worlds at the same time at quite a high level.
Yeah. Fairly high. The English Premier League and the Olympics. Those are fairly high levels.
Winning the gold medal actually helped me in Southampton. I came in as the chairman and they saw I was a consultant with Team Canada. And the English media, in January, was kind of chuckling at me. In March, they weren't.
Is the gold medal hanging on your Southampton office door?
It's actually not. I'm funny that way. It's at home, in my home in Switzerland. That gold medal is just in my heart. I rode the elevator yesterday with Carey Price and Sidney Crosby. ... I warmed up Price the first day [in Sochi], and then it kind of worked. I ended up warming him up so much that I had really bad golf elbow. I couldn't move my arm for six months after the Olympics. I have a terrible shot, but I think he kind of liked it, because he didn't know where the pucks were going. It became a bit of a joke. My elbow was my big sacrifice to win a gold medal.
So was it strange being in an elevator with them, coaching the opposing team?
No. No. It was warm. It was very warm to be in the elevator with them. Now, of course I'm always with the team I'm with. I love Team Europe and we want to beat them. If this Team Europe experience is my last hockey experience, I couldn't ask for anything better. It's just been so much fun.
I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the Sam Allardyce situation and what appears to be a burgeoning corruption crisis in English football.
Oh my God. I have to tell you, really, absolutely shocked and shuddered. Our whole board is shocked and upset by it. Multiple messages through the day yesterday and this morning. We've been a club that's been driving, wanting to get control of the evolving agent world around us, and we believe we're going to have ears now. Southampton is built on a completely honest and open culture and on values. The reason I took the job was the unbelievable value structure and foundation of our owner, Katharina Liebherr. ... That's why I embraced this, was to be able to lead and be the de facto owner of an organization where it was driven by culture. So we're extremely upset by this. We see it as a shocking evolution that -- I wouldn't say we're so naïve to believe that this didn't exist, but we did think it wasn't part of our English football culture. We're going to use this, for sure, as a club, to fight for change and to fight for more regulation. We are all for regulation, and we are one of the most disciplined clubs in English football in terms of the way we deal with agents and youth academy players. Staying within the rules is something we really -- everything we do is based on that. We will react, for sure. It's going to become a major thing for me when I get back. Absolutely top of the agenda.
You made it very clear at the beginning of this tournament that you were not using this to come back to hockey. But Las Vegas [the NHL expansion team], because you're a project guy, seems like an interesting opportunity for someone like you. Would you be open to such an opportunity?
It's a good question. My answer is the same: I'm always really present where I'm present. Right now I'm here with Team Europe. I believe the players never felt the chairman of Southampton in that dressing room. Maybe away from it--
Like when you were watching the West Ham game in the room?
OK, it might have maybe been there a little bit. I tell you quite honestly, once I'm back in the Southampton environment, there's so much to do there. I love the project. ... But how could I say never? I've never said, "No, no, no, never." Ever. What I've said is that right now I'm looking forward to being the chairman of the Southampton Football Club, and that remains. This doesn't change that. I knew I loved hockey. I never said I didn't. People say, "You're in football now, so that means you don' t like hockey." I've had people calling me a traitor.
You're allowed to have multiple loves.
Yes. I love to go to the theater in London. I love music. I have a Van Morrison concert at the end of October that's a big green mark on my calendar. The question is always, when you speak about the NHL, people are branding me as a coach. I'm now the chairman of Southampton. So possibly there's another entry someday, in a different kind of role. I'm open. As long as Southampton is my growth opportunity, I will stay there. If the time comes for change, where and when, who knows?
A lot of your reputation -- I know the Canadian gold medal is a big exception -- but a lot of your reputation is leading overachieving underdogs. Thursday, once again you're in that role. What do you expect out of your team, and do you ever look over at the Canadian bench and think, "I wouldn't mind standing behind those guys"?
You know what? Really I don't. I've always measured winning by potential. Always. Always. The group you're with, how close to their potential do they get? That's the marker. I've never been a person focused on only measuring success in the superficial realm. I've never been that. I've always been about potential. We started with Team Europe on Sept. 1. The only thing I asked of our staff was let's create an environment where this group goes home and feels like they reached their potential. I don't think we've reached it yet. Looking at the game tomorrow, I believe very confidently you're going to see another step tomorrow. Whether that gives us the W or not, I'm not sure. But we are going to have a serious shot to win.