‘I’ve enjoyed it, it’s been really fun’: Local pastor keeps getting mistaken for Oilers head coach

A pastor in Sherwood Park has been recognized a lot more in the past few years since he looks a lot like Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.

A local pastor has had a few laughs over the past two years as fans keep mistaking him for Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch.

Matt Ziprick is a pastor at Bethel Lutheran Church in Sherwood Park.

He also looks very similar to Kris Knoblauch.

Since Knoblauch joined the Oilers in 2023, Ziprick has been occasionally stopped by people who think he’s the head coach. His basketball teammates first pointed it out by “congratulating” him on getting the job as the Oilers bench boss.

“I’ve enjoyed it. It’s been really fun and I can honestly say that I think everybody that I’ve met through this has enjoyed it too,” Ziprick said.

“It’s just been a lot of fun connections and yeah, I’m rolling with it, riding the wave.”

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Ziprick has gotten a bit of local fame through being Knoblauch’s doppelganger, even being shown on screen during an NHL broadcast of a playoff game between the Oilers and the Dallas Stars.

Now that people are more familiar with him, he still gets noticed, but people are starting to be able to correctly identify Ziprick.

“I do feel like I’ve let a few people down just by not being Kris, and so that’s been kind of funny too,” Ziprick said.

At the end-of-season press conference, the real Kris Knoblauch seemed amused by the doppelganger situation.

“He was so handsome, almost (like) Brad Pitt,” Knoblauch said.

One thing Ziprick hopes to be able to do is have Knoblauch come to his church and hold up a sign saying, “I’m the real Matt Ziprick,” as the reverse of what Ziprick did.

“(I) love his sense of humor, and (I’m) just really glad that he’s maybe enjoying some of this too. It’s just been a lot of fun,” Ziprick added.

Ziprick, 51, is actually five years older than Knoblauck, 46, so one has to wonder if that would technically make Knoblauch the doppelganger even though he’s more famous than Ziprick.

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Nahreman Issa