Jay Woodcroft fired, Kris Knoblauch in as Head Coach

[JR Ewing]

The Edmonton Oilers are firing head coach Jay Woodcroft, the team announced on Sunday.

 

Edmonton was on a shortlist of Stanley Cup favourites coming into the season but a 3-9-1 record through 13 games has them well back in the Pacific Division standings. And now, it’s cost Woodcroft his job. Assistant coach Dave Manson has also been relieved of his duties.

 

Hartford Wold Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch will replace Woodcroft as head coach in Edmonton with Paul Coffey as an assistant. 

 

Woodcroft's run as head coach ends after a year-and-a-half run, beginning when he took over a struggling team from Dave Tippett in February of 2022. The Oilers found a spark under their new head coach, going 26-9-3 over their final 38 games and advancing to the Western Conference Final. But Edmonton’s run came to an end after they ran into the 119-point Colorado Avalanche, who swept them en route to a Stanley Cup title.

 

In their first full season under the 47-year-old, Oilers finished with 109 points – the fourth highest total in team history – and went into the playoffs with the second-most wins in the Western Conference. The Oilers once again ran into the eventual Stanley Cup champion as the Vegas Golden Knights sent them home in six games in the second round.

 

Hopes were sky-high for 2023-24 but the Oilers dropped six of their first seven games, including an 8-1 drubbing in Vancouver on opening night, and the team is currently mired in a four-game skid. 

Woodcroft has been with the Oilers since 2015 when he joined the team as an assistant coach under Todd McLellan. In 2018, Woodcroft became the head coach of the club’s AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, and returned to the NHL just under four years later as Tippett’s replacement.

 

Woodcroft worked for the Detroit Red Wings as a video coach and the San Jose Sharks as an assistant before joining the Oilers.

 

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/edmonton-oilers-fire-head-coach-jay-woodcroft-to-be-replaced-by-kris-knoblauch-1.2034699

[yave1964]

3 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

The Edmonton Oilers are firing head coach Jay Woodcroft, the team announced on Sunday.

 

Edmonton was on a shortlist of Stanley Cup favourites coming into the season but a 3-9-1 record through 13 games has them well back in the Pacific Division standings. And now, it’s cost Woodcroft his job. Assistant coach Dave Manson has also been relieved of his duties.

 

Hartford Wold Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch will replace Woodcroft as head coach in Edmonton with Paul Coffey as an assistant. 

 

Woodcroft's run as head coach ends after a year-and-a-half run, beginning when he took over a struggling team from Dave Tippett in February of 2022. The Oilers found a spark under their new head coach, going 26-9-3 over their final 38 games and advancing to the Western Conference Final. But Edmonton’s run came to an end after they ran into the 119-point Colorado Avalanche, who swept them en route to a Stanley Cup title.

 

In their first full season under the 47-year-old, Oilers finished with 109 points – the fourth highest total in team history – and went into the playoffs with the second-most wins in the Western Conference. The Oilers once again ran into the eventual Stanley Cup champion as the Vegas Golden Knights sent them home in six games in the second round.

 

Hopes were sky-high for 2023-24 but the Oilers dropped six of their first seven games, including an 8-1 drubbing in Vancouver on opening night, and the team is currently mired in a four-game skid. 

Woodcroft has been with the Oilers since 2015 when he joined the team as an assistant coach under Todd McLellan. In 2018, Woodcroft became the head coach of the club’s AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors, and returned to the NHL just under four years later as Tippett’s replacement.

 

Woodcroft worked for the Detroit Red Wings as a video coach and the San Jose Sharks as an assistant before joining the Oilers.

 

https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/edmonton-oilers-fire-head-coach-jay-woodcroft-to-be-replaced-by-kris-knoblauch-1.2034699

Had to happen. Knoblaugh a good rep in the AHL.

[JR Ewing]

Quick thoughts in point form...

 

-As ever, the goalies' ability to make save will win a coach the Jack Adams, and their inability to make those saves will surely get him fired, too. The team's analytics are all at or near the top of the league, but when the goaltenders pitch a SV% of .864, it's very difficult to remain employed. The next coach usually comes in, the luck returns to normal, and it looks like a genius move.

 

-This is 100% Connor McDavid's team now. This past summer, they hired his agent as CEO, they've brought in several of his friends as teammates, and now they bring in his coach from junior. I'm only half kidding: is he going to get a percentage ownership in his next contract?

 

-I think that Jay Woodcroft is a decent coach, but he has to own his decision to completely change the team's structure. Moving away from their strengths, which had them right near the top of the league, and playing to their weaknesses, cost him dearly.

 

-The team wants to improve the way the blueline defends, so they bring in Paul Coffey to coach the defensemen? Makes sense, bro.

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by JR Ewing

[J0e Th0rnton]

26 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

Quick thoughts in point form...

 

-As ever, the goalies' ability to make save will win a coach the Jack Adams, and their inability to make those saves will surely get him fired, too. The team's analytics are all at or near the top of the league, but when the goaltenders pitch a SV% of .864, it's very difficult to remain employed. The next coach usually comes in, the luck returns to normal, and it looks like a genius move.

 

-This is 100% Connor McDavid's team now. This past summer, they hired his agent as CEO, they've brought in several of his friends as teammates, and now they bring in his coach from junior. I'm only half kidding: is he going to get a percentage ownership in his next contract?

 

-I think that Jay Woodcroft is a decent coach, but he has to own his decision to completely change the team's structure. Moving away from their strengths, which had them right near the top of the league, and playing to their weaknesses, cost him dearly.

 

-The team wants to improve the way the blueline defends, so they bring in Paul Coffey to coach the defensemen? Makes sense, bro.

 

Never ever liked woodcroft when he was with the sharks. 

 

Man the Oilers need to restructure their goalie coaching too lol

[Podein25]

44 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

Never ever liked woodcroft when he was with the sharks. 

 

Is it his face? He's got a weird face, plastic-like. Creepy.

[JR Ewing]

1 hour ago, yave1964 said:

Had to happen. Knoblaugh a good rep in the AHL.

 

-I don't know as Woodcroft deserved to be fired, but he's certainly not perfect. His decision to change the defensive structure flatly didn't work out, but he did it in response to Ken Holland not getting him NHL goaltending.

 

-Woodcroft has a record of 79-41-13, good for a .643 PTS%, and when he took over, the Oilers were a .500 team. I think he can coach in his league.

 

-I'd say that Ken Holland should be fired, but I think he's effectively been shelved by Jeff Jackson already, to judge by what's happened this Autumn.

 

-I've read good things about Knoblauch for several years. The Oilers have the worst SV% and one of the worst SH% in the league right now. They will regress to form, the goals and saves will come, and the move will make him look like a genius, even if he's just rolling out a team that came into the season as a Cup favourite.

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by JR Ewing

[JR Ewing]

9 minutes ago, Podein25 said:

Is it his face? He's got a weird face, plastic-like. Creepy.

 

Oh good; it wasn't just me. Odd looking fellow. I've always kind of been waiting for him to attack Steve Austin.

 

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by JR Ewing

[pilldoc]

Until the Oiler's fix their goalie situation no Coach is gonna be the savior of this team.

 

I get why they did it .... but this is the GM's responsibility here .....

[JR Ewing]

lol

 

 

[J0e Th0rnton]

19 minutes ago, Podein25 said:

Is it his face? He's got a weird face, plastic-like. Creepy.

He was in charge of special teams.....and sucked lol

[pilldoc]

10 minutes ago, JR Ewing said:

lol

 

 

 

[JR Ewing]

10 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

He was in charge of special teams.....and sucked lol

 

I was curious, so I checked. The Sharks special teams during Woodcroft's time:

 

2008 - 10, 1
2009 - 3, 5
2010 - 5, 5
2011 - 3, 24
2012 - 2, 29
2013 - 7, 6
2014 - 20, 6
2015 - 6, 25

 

Other than one year on the PP, and three with the PK, that's a great record.

 

[JR Ewing]

Look at how many coaches Ryan Nugent-Hopkins has played for by now in this, his 13th season:

 

1. Tom Renney

2. Ralph Kruger

3. Dallas Eakins

4. Craig MacTavish

5. Todd Nelson

6. Todd McLellan

7. Ken Hitchcock

8. Dave Tippett

9. Jay Woodcroft

10. And now, Kris Knoblauch

 

[J0e Th0rnton]

2 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

 

I was curious, so I checked. The Sharks special teams during Woodcroft's time:

 

2008 - 10, 1
2009 - 3, 5
2010 - 5, 5
2011 - 3, 24
2012 - 2, 29
2013 - 7, 6
2014 - 20, 6
2015 - 6, 25

 

Other than one year on the PP, and three with the PK, that's a great record.

 

I credit Joe Thornton and team with making that happen.

 

I can guarantee you if you go into old game day threads you will see a lot of people hating on him lol

[JR Ewing]

45 minutes ago, J0e Th0rnton said:

I credit Joe Thornton and team with making that happen.

 

I can guarantee you if you go into old game day threads you will see a lot of people hating on him lol

 

"He who builds on the people builds on mud" is the line, and it pretty fairly translates to just how much teams should concern themselves with internet game day threads with respect to the quality of the work turned in by their coaches. Jay Woodcroft has spent most of the last 20 years coaching in the NHL in one capacity or another, including holding down the job in San Jose for eight years. Knowledgeable hockey men who ran quality organizations with strong success in Detroit and San Jose saw fit to give him a paycheque every two weeks. Millions of dollars in the bank.

 

Even though NHL teams make mistakes every day, it doesn't seem like they quite agreed with the fans on that one, so I'll guess that maybe he didn't suck at his job, considering he's been doing it in the best league in the world for so long.

 

This is my same difficulty with assessing the quality of Dustin Schwartz's work as the Oilers goalie coach; I'm just not sure how I'm supposed to do it. Have the Oilers' goalies been amazing in his time? No. Is it because he's bad? Maybe. Have many goaltenders left Edmonton and been a lot better with a new coach? No. Is it because the team hasn't drafted good goalies? Maybe. Does their drafting show well other than some no-brainers? No, definitely not, so I swing back to "the team hasn't provided Schwartz with strong options."

 

There are things that a coach does where we can question the wisdom. I thought it was strange when Dallas Eakins assigned the captaincy of the Oilers based on the results of training camp fitness tests. I'd never heard of another coach who had ever done that, so it seemed likely to be a mistake. He gave the players a playbook of several zone defenses they were to switch to, on the fly, based on certain conditions. I had never heard of that, thought it sounded weird, and when the players spent his tenure in Edmonton gliding around and looking confused, there was a strong basis to conclude that it was a bad idea.

 

It's one thing to question coaches who don't have success, but another to question them when they've held down jobs for a long time, and the task they were given netted positive results.

 

I'm just not as sure as other people otherwise, though.

 

 

[yave1964]

@JR Ewing

Man I agree with you on Holland. The happiest day for me in the last ten years as a Wings fan was not the signing of yzerman but Holland moving on. His drafts in later years after Jim Nill left were wretched, his trades were overpayment for bandaids and signing mediocre plays such as Weiss, abdelkader, HELM, Ericsson and so many more to long term crippling deals was dreadful. Some day he will go to the hall as an executive. I won't watch. He left scorched earth, less than five players remain in the organization he left in Motown. He inherited a team built by the great jimmy devallano took advantage of Nill draft picks Zetterberg and Datsyuk to win a cup in 2008 and then slowly ruined a once proud franchise with one inept move after another. He is one of the two most overrated exes who ever built a team in NHL history. Just awful. I thought McDavid and Leon might be able to carry the team in spite of him but it looks like not. Holland should have never been hired.the game literally passed him by the day a salary cap was implemented and he could no longer sign a hull/Hasek/robitaille with pizza money to buy a cup. (Sound of me climbing off my soapbox).

[mojo1917]

@yave1964

Man that is a take.

I appreciate it though and it's tough to argue with.

Who is the other most overrated exec? 

asking for a friend.

[yave1964]

1 hour ago, mojo1917 said:

@yave1964

Man that is a take.

I appreciate it though and it's tough to argue with.

Who is the other most overrated exec? 

asking for a friend.

  I know he is an icon, but lou lamiorello IMHO is insanely overrated. Drafted martin brodeur which won him several cups, but his signings (see Kovalchuk, ect . All...) His very questionable trading record and especially his piss poor drafting over the last 20 years make him the GOAT of all time over hyped execs. Now with the Islanders he signed the entire damn team to seven and eight year deals which is questionable for Tampa but at least they have recent cups, on the island they are a middling team, aging, nowhere to go because even 4th liners and backup goalies are overpaid for too long of a term. Other than drafting Brodeur he has done very little to earn his rep. Reporters glow about how secret he is, how privately charming he is in a curmudgeonly way but seriously, going back two decades he accidently took an 8 seed devils team to a surprise final in 2011, the leafs were good but he deserves at most little credit or even blame if you count playoff failures, he took over a mediocre isles club and made them more so. His reputation is far overblown.

  Honorable mention Brian Burke. The man's voice makes grit my teeth so hard my fillings nearly pop 

[Buffalo Rick]

Islanders at Edmonton tonight.  Once upon a time, 1980’s, this matchup was special.  

[Samifan]

So McJesus gets his old juniors coach back, let’s see how that helps the goaltending issues the Oil have?

[Math]

On 11/13/2023 at 10:58 AM, yave1964 said:

I know he is an icon, but lou lamiorello IMHO is insanely overrated.

 

I agree. Also, the fact that he still forces players to be daily shaved is baffling. I still don't understand why they don't stand up and tell him to f**k off, him and his retarded principles.

[JR Ewing]

2 hours ago, Math said:

 

I agree. Also, the fact that he still forces players to be daily shaved is baffling. I still don't understand why they don't stand up and tell him to f**k off, him and his retarded principles.

 

I guess he wouldn't have liked Don Mattingly either.

 

[thegx.ca]

On 11/12/2023 at 11:58 AM, JR Ewing said:

Quick thoughts in point form...

 

-As ever, the goalies' ability to make save will win a coach the Jack Adams, and their inability to make those saves will surely get him fired, too. The team's analytics are all at or near the top of the league, but when the goaltenders pitch a SV% of .864, it's very difficult to remain employed. The next coach usually comes in, the luck returns to normal, and it looks like a genius move.

 

-This is 100% Connor McDavid's team now. This past summer, they hired his agent as CEO, they've brought in several of his friends as teammates, and now they bring in his coach from junior. I'm only half kidding: is he going to get a percentage ownership in his next contract?

 

-I think that Jay Woodcroft is a decent coach, but he has to own his decision to completely change the team's structure. Moving away from their strengths, which had them right near the top of the league, and playing to their weaknesses, cost him dearly.

 

-The team wants to improve the way the blueline defends, so they bring in Paul Coffey to coach the defensemen? Makes sense, bro.

 

McDave got Woodcroft fired for sure hahaha...

[JR Ewing]

1 hour ago, thegx.ca said:

McDave got Woodcroft fired for sure hahaha...

 

I think that's a step far. McDavid himself said that he found out about the coaching change when the general public found out, on Sunday morning, and if he was lying in his interview, he needs to get an Oscar. We're talking about a guy who has, at every step of his career, gone out of his way to not appear as if he's bigger than the team, has a big head, etc.

 

Jeff Jackson is the CEO, and to judge by the Knoblauch hire and then the press conference, is the de facto GM. Jackson has a long and fairly fruitful relationship with Knoblauch, had a number of his clients go through Knoblauch's system, and has publicly stated his view of him as a coach to look for in the future. Woodcroft wasn't his hire and, as is the habit of all men running hockey teams, saw a chance to put in his guy, and went for it.

 

In the two seasons he played for Jay Woodcroft, McDavid has had the best run of his career, leading the league in goals, assists, points, has won a Hart, finished 2nd the other year, and won a Lindsay. With goaltending that has been, at its absolute best, OK, the team went to the Conference Finals and lost to the eventual Cup winner in both years. Why would he try to get the coach he's had the most success with fired?

 

That just doesn't make any kind of sense, and it's not fair to speculate like that about people; to attribute malice when a very slight amount of thought would indicate that there's not really much there to talk about.

[thegx.ca]

8 hours ago, JR Ewing said:

 

I think that's a step far. McDavid himself said that he found out about the coaching change when the general public found out, on Sunday morning, and if he was lying in his interview, he needs to get an Oscar. We're talking about a guy who has, at every step of his career, gone out of his way to not appear as if he's bigger than the team, has a big head, etc.

 

Jeff Jackson is the CEO, and to judge by the Knoblauch hire and then the press conference, is the de facto GM. Jackson has a long and fairly fruitful relationship with Knoblauch, had a number of his clients go through Knoblauch's system, and has publicly stated his view of him as a coach to look for in the future. Woodcroft wasn't his hire and, as is the habit of all men running hockey teams, saw a chance to put in his guy, and went for it.

 

In the two seasons he played for Jay Woodcroft, McDavid has had the best run of his career, leading the league in goals, assists, points, has won a Hart, finished 2nd the other year, and won a Lindsay. With goaltending that has been, at its absolute best, OK, the team went to the Conference Finals and lost to the eventual Cup winner in both years. Why would he try to get the coach he's had the most success with fired?

 

That just doesn't make any kind of sense, and it's not fair to speculate like that about people; to attribute malice when a very slight amount of thought would indicate that there's not really much there to talk about.

True enough...it usually is the agents that influencing everything either covertly like McDave agent or overtly like Huberdeau agent helped get Sutter fired...