While other teams have hired veteran coaches this off-season, the Edmonton Oilers weren't about to turn away from their first-timer after Jay Woodcroft's impressive work this year. (SportsnetSpec)
EDMONTON — As serial coaches John Tortorella, Pete DeBoer, Paul Maurice and even Bruce Cassidy played musical chairs across the National Hockey League, theHere’s the simple reason: “Jay delivered,” said Oilers general manager Ken Holland on Wednesday.There isn’t a functional NHL organization that doesn’t bring Woodcroft back after the work he did in 2021-22, posting the second-best winning percentage in the NHL since the day he was hired, Feb. 11, through season’s end.
“When I got the opportunity in February,” Woodcroft began on Wednesday, “Ken gave me that direction of, get us into the playoffs, win games and see what happens once we get there. For me at the time, that was really freeing.”So he tried some stuff, and almost all of it worked. It’s a three-year contract that reportedly pays Woodcroft $2 million per season. He made no promises on assistant coaches Manson, Glen Gulutzan, Brian Wiseman and Dustin Schwartz, but will spend the next few days sorting that out. Manson’s a lock to be back.
Two moments that stood out to me occurred with 10 days of each other, the first on April 13, after a crushing 5-1 loss in Minnesota had left Edmonton with a 12-3-2 record in its past 17 games. Tyson Barrie gave us a look into the team’s psyche, with the playoffs less than three weeks away. Just over a week later, the cerebral Derek Ryan weighed in on the alterations that had occurred, with Woodcroft having spent two full months on the job.“Structured. Detailed. Not getting rattled by giving up leads,” began Ryan. “The detail in our D-zone exits, our D-zone coverage, our neutral-zone forecheck. Our O-zone forecheck … Just every little facet of the game.”
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