We haven&#8217;t heard much from Jay Woodcroft since he was fired by the Edmonton Oilers in November of last year.

Woodcroft and assistant coach Dave Manson were let go amid a terrible start to the 2023-24 season that saw the Oilers come out of the gate with a 3-9-1 record. It was a shocking fall from grace for a young coach who had guided the team to a 76-31-11 record over the previous two seasons.
Kris Knoblauch, coaching the American Hockey League affiliate of the New York Rangers at the time, took over as head coach in Edmonton, and former Oiler Paul Coffey joined the bench as the defence coach. The Oilers went 46-18-5 the rest of the regular season and ran all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, where they were defeated 2-1 by the Florida Panthers.
While the Oilers found their groove with Knoblauch, Woodcroft took a deep breath before getting back into hockey in Europe. In the spring, he joined Andre Tourigny&#8217;s coaching staff with Team Canada at the World Hockey Championships in Czechia.
<blockquote>“I got some great advice from some mentors around the league that I’ve worked with and some that I didn’t work with, and they said, ‘You’ve been doing this for 20 or so years straight going 100 miles an hour. It’s okay to take a deep breath and spend some quality family time,&#8217;” <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/woodcroft-i-havent-watched-much-of-the-edmonton-oilers-since-i-was-let-go">said Woodcroft, who is married and a father of two</a>. &#8220;That’s something I really dug into.&#8221;
“Right around the month of January when the calendar flipped, I was eager to flex some hockey muscles and eager to be around the game a little bit more. I spent the month of February over in Europe and was able to be around two quality organizations in two different countries. I was welcomed in by two different coaching staffs at two different points in their year. I picked up a few things here and there, and I’m certainly going to bring some of it in to my next opportunity wherever and whenever that might be.”</blockquote>
There were a few coaching changes in the NHL this summer, as the Toronto Maple Leafs fired Sheldon Keefe and hired former St. Louis Blues bench boss Craig Berube as his replacement. Keefe landed with the New Jersey Devils, who dismissed Lindy Ruff following a disappointing season, and the San Jose Sharks hired 36-year-old Ryan Warsofsky to replace David Quinn.
Though he hasn&#8217;t found a gig yet, Woodcroft will be back at an NHL training camp this fall. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported that veteran coach John Tortorella invited Woodcroft to join the Philadelphia Flyers for a few days at the team&#8217;s training camp.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
Another former <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Oilers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Oilers</a> connection:
Jay Woodcroft is spending a couple days around the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Flyers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Flyers</a> for training camp as an invited guest of John Tortorella. Woodcroft is there to observe and watch, learning and adding to his toolset while waiting for his next opportunity.
&mdash; Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) <a href="https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1837169109714268594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 20, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Woodcroft broke into the NHL as the video coach on Mike Babcock&#8217;s staff with the Detroit Red Wings in 2005-06. When assistant coach Todd McLellan was hired by the San Jose Sharks in 2008-09, Woodcroft made the move to California to take on an assistant coaching role.
He again followed McLellan when the Edmonton Oilers hired him in 2015-16. He spent three years on the bench in Edmonton before being named the head coach of the Bakersfield Condors. When the Oilers fired Dave Tippett in February of 2021-22, Woodcroft came up and led the Oilers to the Western Conference Final.
Though his time as head coach of the Oilers ended with a shocking early-season disaster, Woodcroft had a very successful tenure with the organization, both in terms of developing talent as the minor-league coach and getting the most out of players at the big-league level. He might have to accept an assistant job first, but Woodcroft deserves another shot as the head coach of an NHL team.

We haven't heard much from Jay Woodcroft since he was fired by the Edmonton Oilers in November of last year.



Woodcroft and assistant coach Dave Manson were let go amid a terrible start to the 2023-24 season that saw the Oilers come out of the gate with a 3-9-1 record. It was a shocking fall from grace for a young coach who had guided the team to a 76-31-11 record over the previous two seasons.

Kris Knoblauch, coaching the American Hockey League affiliate of the New York Rangers at the time, took over as head coach in Edmonton, and former Oiler Paul Coffey joined the bench as the defence coach. The Oilers went 46-18-5 the rest of the regular season and ran all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, where they were defeated 2-1 by the Florida Panthers.

While the Oilers found their groove with Knoblauch, Woodcroft took a deep breath before getting back into hockey in Europe. In the spring, he joined Andre Tourigny's coaching staff with Team Canada at the World Hockey Championships in Czechia.
<blockquote>“I got some great advice from some mentors around the league that I’ve worked with and some that I didn’t work with, and they said, ‘You’ve been doing this for 20 or so years straight going 100 miles an hour. It’s okay to take a deep breath and spend some quality family time,'” <a href="https://oilersnation.com/news/woodcroft-i-havent-watched-much-of-the-edmonton-oilers-since-i-was-let-go">said Woodcroft, who is married and a father of two</a>. "That’s something I really dug into."

“Right around the month of January when the calendar flipped, I was eager to flex some hockey muscles and eager to be around the game a little bit more. I spent the month of February over in Europe and was able to be around two quality organizations in two different countries. I was welcomed in by two different coaching staffs at two different points in their year. I picked up a few things here and there, and I’m certainly going to bring some of it in to my next opportunity wherever and whenever that might be.”</blockquote>
There were a few coaching changes in the NHL this summer, as the Toronto Maple Leafs fired Sheldon Keefe and hired former St. Louis Blues bench boss Craig Berube as his replacement. Keefe landed with the New Jersey Devils, who dismissed Lindy Ruff following a disappointing season, and the San Jose Sharks hired 36-year-old Ryan Warsofsky to replace David Quinn.

Though he hasn't found a gig yet, Woodcroft will be back at an NHL training camp this fall. Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported that veteran coach John Tortorella invited Woodcroft to join the Philadelphia Flyers for a few days at the team's training camp.

https://twitter.com/frank_seravalli/status/1837169109714268594

Woodcroft broke into the NHL as the video coach on Mike Babcock's staff with the Detroit Red Wings in 2005-06. When assistant coach Todd McLellan was hired by the San Jose Sharks in 2008-09, Woodcroft made the move to California to take on an assistant coaching role.

He again followed McLellan when the Edmonton Oilers hired him in 2015-16. He spent three years on the bench in Edmonton before being named the head coach of the Bakersfield Condors. When the Oilers fired Dave Tippett in February of 2021-22, Woodcroft came up and led the Oilers to the Western Conference Final.

Though his time as head coach of the Oilers ended with a shocking early-season disaster, Woodcroft had a very successful tenure with the organization, both in terms of developing talent as the minor-league coach and getting the most out of players at the big-league level. He might have to accept an assistant job first, but Woodcroft deserves another shot as the head coach of an NHL team.

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