As far as my opinion of Oates, one thing scares me. Although its clear he was a great assistant, with all his players praising him, its also clear that as a captain and leader, he was a whiny, douchy selfish ***** - NOT a great leader. The problem is that assistant coaches can be a players buddy, and offer little besides technical coaching to be an asset to the player. Assistant coaches don't bench players, cut players, or have to discipline a player who misses a meeting or violates a team rule. But a Head Coach has to do all those things. A HC has to be a real leader, who can't be buddies with his stars, because he has to get them to do things they may not want to do. See Ovechkin, Alex re: Defense. A HC has to get his players to set aside their selfish interests and do what's in the best interest of the team. Dale had started to get everyone to do that, but hadn't quite gotten through to AO yet.
Oates has proven to be a solid assistant. But I fear as a leader who has to set a tone and rally his troops around a single cause greater than one's own interest, he may not have that skill. He certainly didn't do that as captain of the Caps, but maybe he too has matured since then?