Confirmed with Link: Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson fired - no more Woody during NNN - Kris Knoblauch hired, Coffey as assistant

[brentashton]

Put another coach on the Oiler funeral pyre. Woodcroft is a quality human being and a good coach albeit one who was overrated by an element of this fanbase. Wish Woody the best of luck for his future endeavours. Came in and won and has now left with a win.

Unfortunately this is a team that has proven incapable of sustaining its work effort, self discipline and structured play for any enduring period of time. Knoblauch is a solid coach but this is an immense first NHL coaching assignment littered with good coaches failing to get this corpse team to change its individual and collective bad habits.

Posted elsewhere but applicable here:

I've long argued NHL coaching is a small piece of the puzzle with approx. 20% impact on games while players bare 80% of results good & bad in this high speed, high chaos game. That there's a few impact coaches but largely interchangeable ones like we've seen x10 in Edmonton.

• https://assets-global.website-files...f6d3840173db437f04da5ce_Do-Coaches-Matter.pdf
• Our estimates imply that coaches often explain 20-30 percent of the variation in a team’s success. Substantively, that’s a large effect, and it’s well worth investing in a good coach if you can identify one. But if a coach has only served a few seasons, a good record doesn’t provide much information about their quality. More likely than not, the other factors that explain the remaining 70-80 percent of the variation were working in that coach’s favor, and we’ll expect regression to the mean in future years.

Good fortune Coach Knoblauch. This systemic malaise is not a coaching issue.

Nice post.

Jay is a student. He will take what he learned in this experience and become a better person and a much improved coach. I expect him to land as an assistant first and then back into a head role very soon. And he will make the Oilers eat their lunch in games that he coaches against them.

I wanted him gone because it wasn’t going to work here anymore, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work somewhere else for him. It will.

Thanks Jay.

Long live Kris Knoblauch, pride of Imperial Sask!!

 

[McTonyBrar]

 

[The Panther]

Nice post.

Jay is a student. He will take what he learned in this experience and become a better person and a much improved coach. I expect him to land as an assistant first and then back into a head role very soon. And he will make the Oilers eat their lunch in games that he coaches against them.

Oh, for sure he will.

I am visualizing about four years in the future: The post-McDavid Oilers, with 30+year old RNH, Nurse, Kane, etc. are losing routinely 7-2 to San Jose coached by Jay Woodcroft.

 

[McFlash97]

Love Paul Coffeys answer.

" wasn't really in my plans, but eh, I'll give it a shot"

The franchise players, season and the organization reputation at stake and this is what we find.

 

[FlameChampion]

Watched the press conference.

I dont think you can learn much about the coach from it. The results on the ice matter more. Knoblauch seems like a nice and humble guy. Good luck to him. This team/players arent very easy to coach.

Few things stood out:
- Holland has no say on this team anymore. Hes just playing out his contract and they make him talk to the media. So no point making threads about him being fired. Jackson/Coffey are running this team.
- I think Coffey is just behind the bench to get an inside view on what the players on the team are like. I think hes there more from a management point of view than a coaching point of view.
- I have heard that Coffey is quite vocal about his thoughts/feelings. And you could tell just how this press conference went. Will be interesting to see how it plays out. I think this team could benefit from a bit more blunt speak. But I dont know if Coffey's heads are in the clouds or not.
- Jackson appears to just be either hiring his friends or who he thinks McDavid prefers. Hopefully it works out. I suspect it wont. I wonder if hes capable of putting a teams needs over a select few.

 

[guymez]

Not sure if this has been posted yet....

Kris Knoblauch, Connor McDavid’s coach from the OHL, will replace Jay Woodcroft behind the Oilers’ bench

Good move retaining Gulutzan.

 

[brentashton]

Love Paul Coffeys answer.

" wasn't really in my plans, but eh, I'll give it a shot"

The franchise players, season and the organization reputation at stake and this is what we find.

Quite the quote. His level of commitment is “staggering”.

I’m not expecting anything special from his tenure here. In 3 years he probably won’t be coaching anywhere. It’s clearly not been a vocation for him for the past 30+years.

Just another OBC that thinks he can sprinkle magic dust with his aura and make everything fine.

 

[The Panther]

I would like everyone to consider the following:

Five or so years (?) after the "Old Boys' Club" supposedly ended, we are now in a situation where, with one P.R.-disaster controversy (à la Quennville, Babcock, Vanbiesbrouck, etc.), one serious illness (Covid, etc.), or one firing (like each of the 9 coaches RNH has already had), we will now have Paul Coffey running the team.

 

[FlameChampion]

Glad they kept Gulutzan

I would hope so. The Oilers are a very average team proped up by a historic power play which Gulutzan has some say with.

 

[BlackDogg]

Not sure if this has been posted yet....

Kris Knoblauch, Connor McDavid’s coach from the OHL, will replace Jay Woodcroft behind the Oilers’ bench

Good move retaining Gulutzan.

Good luck Oilers ever getting any impartiality on anything McDavid related. On the ice or from a business perspective.

 

[guymez]

Good luck Oilers ever getting any impartiality on anything McDavid related. On the ice or from a business perspective.

I hear you.
Its a sad reality.

 

[Lay Z Boy GM]

Those are pretty convincing wins and really tight losses.

He’s the coach now, seems like a decent guy too. Hopefully the team gets on board and gives a full effort, he might be a great coach for us.

That being said if it doesn’t work out I’ll blame Holland forever for ruining the McDrai era. There was dynasty potential but Chia and Holland failed.

 

[KCC]

Fine, the coach was replaced but what about roster? Holland iced a team that is still full of holes and as usual he won't take any blame.

 

[ElysiumAB]

To me, this feels more like a step toward blowing up the team, than it does the next step forward in a progression of bigger successes.

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

To me, this feels more like a step toward blowing up the team, than it does the next step forward in a progression of bigger successes.

Doesn’t scream cup window that’s for sure.

 

[Dazed and Confused]

Can't help but feel Woody got short end of the stick here.

Not to say he didn't tighten his own noose with some decisions, but 13 games, most of which you didn't have the roster space to play anyone beyond the 20 "healthy" guys you could dress that night, is rough.


I'm amazed that a firing came before a trade.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

Nice post.

Jay is a student. He will take what he learned in this experience and become a better person and a much improved coach. I expect him to land as an assistant first and then back into a head role very soon. And he will make the Oilers eat their lunch in games that he coaches against them.

I wanted him gone because it wasn’t going to work here anymore, but that doesn’t mean it can’t work somewhere else for him. It will.

Thanks Jay.

Long live Kris Knoblauch, pride of Imperial Sask!!

I have a lot of time for Jay Woodcroft the person. Conducted himself with class even with some of the hokey elements of his coaching persona (practising with lines only to change them at game time like that was a fake-out for opposition; a little too cutesy with media; positive mantra stuff like manage your day which clearly didn't land with this adult group). But these are all quibbles for a guy that accepted a demotion to stay within this organization to build his portfolio as a head coach and helped carve out the first meaningful playoff success in years.

He will get another chance and sooner than later. This guy is self-reflective and has a growth mindset to learn and improve. The next stop will have more runway and less vitriol because of the organization's systemic long-term fail that makes every Oil coach the next saviour and next dog kicked when the player issues re-emerge.

As they say in corporate Calgary, 'what do you call the fella from Saskatchewan? ... Boss!' haha. Sasky Knoblauch is a good coach who's next up in the Tilt-a-Whirl called the Oilers. Four management groups and 10 coaches leading into a Cup expectation is a virtual cauldron of hades to airlift into your first NHL coaching job.

Coffey bring some of the Cup wisdom and poise I felt this collection of individuals needed in a new head coach. He'll be a good lean-on to this green banana coach but this whole team. But there's no miracle workers in this profession. Hopefully Oiler fans might finally come to this conclusion after 10x Groundhog Day movies starring the newest genius to arrive in Oil Country.

 

[Tarus]

Can't help but feel Woody got short end of the stick here.

Not to say he didn't tighten his own noose with some decisions, but 13 games, most of which you didn't have the roster space to play anyone beyond the 20 "healthy" guys you could dress that night, is rough.


I'm amazed that a firing came before a trade.

As they said, there is no trade market.

Not really surprising considering it's November

 

[TheNumber4]

Pure speculation but I am pretty sure there is a defensive coach out there who is better than a guy that's never trained or wanted to be a coach, ever.

"Best In Class" I was told.

 

[Kerberos]

Listening to that conference offers one glaring and obvious takeaway. A whole bunch of mediocre idiots are running this franchise and they are woefully underqualified to do so.

The dumbf***s couldn't even get on the same page in a pre-rehearsed press conference. Hilarious.

 

[KCC]

EDM is not winning with this roster. Plain and simple. Maybe the trades are on the way but if not it isn't happening. This was just a band-aid move by Holland when this was all his doing. He signed Campbell to a bad deal, he signed Nurse to a bad deal, he made the bottom 6 worse heading into this year and the defense is still sub par. Pretty much all the problems that have plagued this team dating back to the dark years are still here. That's around 16 years. Another GM who hasn't fixed a darn thing. lol

 

[RegDunlop]

listen to this clip by Gazolla

sounds like Coffey has been running the team behind the scenes

https://x.com/akaRCN/status/1723773618226696512?s=20

Holy shit

 

[gordonhught]

EDM is not winning with this roster. Plain and simple. Maybe the trades are on the way but if not it isn't happening. This was just a band-aid move by Holland when this was all his doing. He signed Campbell to a bad deal, he signed Nurse to a bad deal, he made the bottom 6 worse heading into this year and the defense is still sub par. Pretty much all the problems that have plagued this team dating back to the dark years are still here. That's around 16 years. Another GM who hasn't fixed a darn thing. lol

But he got rich off that big fat Katz contract. Holland only took this job for the dough. He has been useless. Chia was better. At least he got 97 and 29 signed to max term deals.

and chia drafted way better. Hollands drafting since 2019 has been piss poor. No solid players.

Holy shit

What?

 

[CupofOil]

Ok, my heart is still recovering after the Lions win. Did I miss anything with the presser? Worth a watch?

 

[FlameChampion]

Listening to that conference offers one glaring and obvious takeaway. A whole bunch of mediocre idiots are running this franchise and they are woefully underqualified to do so.

The dumbf***s couldn't even get on the same page in a pre-rehearsed press conference. Hilarious.

Agreed. I think Holland sounded the most competent which is sad. Jackson came across as an idiot to me. Coffey was just weird but kind of refreshing at the same time. Guy gives zero f*cks haha.

No real impression of Knoblauch though. Results matter more than how he speaks. But good luck to him. Probably his last NHL gig after this organization/players are done with him.

Ok, my heart is still recovering after the Lions win. Did I miss anything with the presser? Worth a watch?

Its an amusing watch. Because it’s kinda a train wreck.