Hitchcock: 'If I'm good, I can coach until I'm 99'

If all goes well for Ken Hitchcock, he'd like to stay in his line of work until he's nearly a centenarian.

"For the record, I feel if I'm good, I can coach until I'm 99," the Edmonton Oilers bench boss told reporters after an overtime loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

When asked about whether he wants to coach the Oilers next season, the 67-year-old acknowledged that decision is out of his hands.

"That's hard because it's somebody else's ballgame now," Hitchcock said. "From a management standpoint, obviously there's going to be a new general manager. I can just tell you what I did this year, I wouldn't change this for the world."

Hitchcock said he's grateful to have the opportunity to work in a Canadian market.

"There's coaching and then there's coaching in Canada, and this is a whole different animal and something that I'm so lucky that I get to experience," he said.

Hitchcock is under contract with Edmonton for two more years after this season.

The Oilers have gone 24-24-7 since Hitchcock came out of retirement and replaced the fired Todd McLellan in November. The club sits six points out of a playoff spot as of Saturday evening and needs to leapfrog five teams to move into a postseason position.