EDMONTON -- When he wasn't competing on the ice during training camp, Edmonton Oilers' centre Shawn Horcoff had an interesting second job - as a NHLPA head hunter. That would be the corporate kind of head hunter, not the Steve Downie kind. Horcoff is one of the five NHLPA members searching for a new executive director to replace Ted Saskin, who was fired in May after allegedly accessing the players' private e-mail accounts. Along with his fellow committee members (Robyn Regher of the Calgary Flames, Mike Cammalleri of the Los Angeles Kings, Chris Chelios of the Detroit Red Wings and Eric Lindros), Horcoff has been interviewing potential candidates. "Craig (MacTavish, the Oilers' head coach) was kind enough to give me some time off during training camp to do the interviews," said Horcoff, who was in Toronto last week meeting with one applicant. Accustomed to being interviewed by the media, Horcoff insisted he enjoyed sitting down and asking the questions about leadership, point of view and what that person would do when confronted by a crisis. "I'm really comfortable in there. I get my questions across," Horcoff acknowledged. "You have to ask the tough questions and got the responses because this isn't going to be an easy job. It's going to be tough because we can't go through what happened to us last season (with Saskin)." The search committee isn't sure when it will pare down its current list of nine - could happen in four weeks, could have in six. When a final decision is made on the best candidate, that name will be presented to the NHLPA's player representatives and put to a vote. "It's such an important job that we have to get it right, and that's what we're trying to do," said Horcoff.