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

I see people talking about how much worse they are defensively but don't you think that might have something to do with woodcroft changing the system right before the season? The roster is very similar to last season, there's no reason they should be this much worse defensively.
For Skinner to have put up the numbers he did last year behind this defence was very impressive and earned him 2nd place in rookie of the year voting. Make no mistake, his outperformed what could be expected of someone in his position last year.

Now he is playing like a bogstandard quality goalie, even below average, and is being mercilessly exposed by our porous defence. I assure you there is no magic cure for a group of low intelligence players. The only thing I've seen that may prove me wrong is watching Ekholm go from being great in his first 5 games here before the shine wore off and he became one of the boys. I will say, although he is clearly our best D, he's overrated as well.

Why don't we go look at what defensive system Nashville is running and why Ekholm went from an all world defenceman to a mediocrity in the span of five games. For my money he got a big boost of energy from moving to a new team, and the Ekholm we saw in the playoffs up until today is the Ekholm who played in Nashville. Don't think there is a defensive scheme just waiting to be tried out that will fix what's wrong here. It's a personnel issue that can only be solved by replacing a significant amount of our D.
 
I suspect a Spector will push this narrative. I’m about to get conspiratorial. Holland is getting pushed out, Spector is Hollands little butt sniffer. This is Spector essentially defending Holland. Oh you don’t like the move? It was JJ and McDavid pulling the strings guys!

Right before the season started Spector was out golfing with Holland. I bet Holland was feeling very insecure about JJ and maybe found himself a slimy little ally.

I just read the tweet and not the article. Seems to me that Spector is defending McDavid.
 
A comment about the media conference format. This is typical corporate crisis management template that rolls out the CEO to address issues along with designated institutional experts as needed. Normal Oil world scenario say announcing good news like a trade or signing they roll out Holland solo to communicate.

This crisis situation required JJ to be seen and part of the accountability involved of firing Woodcroft versus perception of ducking bad news, controversial decisions if not on stage. But in so doing it created confusion. Confusion to whom questions should be directed. Holland botched a question about the process of engaging the team's leadership and then passed the hand grenade over to JJ. This muddled the answer and appearance of someone not telling the truth.

They should have had the media relations talking head identify everyone and clarify who to direct questions to - specifically identifying Holland as the primary team representative given it's an operational decision, both the firing and hiring. Clarify JJ's role as senior oversight available for any secondary questions, if and as required. Coffey shouldn't have been on stage and rather part of Holland briefing the media about the firing and hiring of KK with notice that due to the loss of Manson that Paul Coffey was being added to the coaching staff on an interim basis to help the transition and provide additional support in the vacant role. Again, outline details upfront to manage the message and centralize answers through Holland.

The poor execution opened the door to creating more doubts and skepticism for an big business that has a decade of management incompetence.
 
Because Woodcroft and Manson are a package deal hence both of them being fired together too.

What other assistant has been hired mid-season? Especially one without any ties to the head coach being hired.
Okay @McDNicks17 you’re right. There isn’t a single coach out there in all of the hockey world who would be more qualified than Paul Coffey who coached a couple seasons of OJHL hockey a decade ago and never anything before or since.
 
Okay @McDNicks17 you’re right. There isn’t a single coach out there in all of the hockey world who would be more qualified than Paul Coffey who coached a couple seasons of OJHL hockey a decade ago and never anything before or since.
Moving the goal posts, eh? haha

You said assistant coaches are hired mid-season "all the time".

Name one.

(Manson was the first in Oilers history, so check other teams. ;))
 
Even if it’s true it shouldn’t be said unless Oilers fans want to tank their own franchise.
I don't disagree with you. But I am starting to think this is now a byproduct of all this whether we like it or not. Even if Jackson is solely in charge, the optics of everything now just look suspect, from him to Knoblach, to Brown. Then you have the Coffey thing, and I think it looks terrible. Whether any of it is due to bad ownership, management, OBC, or everything's actually removed from all that, the organizations ineptitude over a huge sample size means they don't get the benefit of the doubt, so it looks shady and will be talked about from here on in. It could be a hugely detrimental distraction to the team for as long as McDavid is here and the team isn't contending, and I'm not saying trade him either.

But the talk will continue unless they go on a sustained tear.

But that's just my opinion.
 
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Moving the goal posts, eh? haha

You said assistant coaches are hired mid-season "all the time".

Name one.

(Manson was the first in Oilers history, so check other teams. ;))
I dont want to speak for Spawn but the main point around this is that when a head coach gets hired mid season he is usually takes on the existing Assistant staff.

He doesnt usually have to take on an assistant that was assigned by the owner/President.
Especially an assistant that was 24 hours ago a special advisor to the team owner.

So KK is being forced (essentially) to take on an inexperienced AC who didnt want the job (by his own admission) and who also has a direct conduit to the owner.

BEL has tried admirably to rationalize this but the reality is that its pretty tough to spin this into a positive move by the team.
Its extremely odd and unusual at best. Its extremely dysfunctional at worst.
 
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I dont want to speak for Spawn but the main point around this is that when a head coach gets hired mid season he is usually takes on the existing Assistant staff.

He doesnt usually have to take on an assistant that was assigned by the owner/President.
Especially an assistant that was 24 hours ago a special advisor to the team owner.

So KK is being forced (essentially) to take on an inexperienced AC who didnt want the job (by his own admission) and who also has a direct conduit to the owner.

BEL has tried admirably to rationalize this but the reality is that its pretty tough to spin this into a positive move by the team.
Its odd at best.
I agree it's odd, but I think it's an odd situation.

Assistant coaches aren't usually fired along with a head coach. 99.9% of the time the new coach comes in and works with the assistants of the past coach. Having an assistant vacancy along with the head coach vacancy is odd.

I'm just making the point that finding an assistant coach mid-season is probably pretty difficult. That isn't an overly attractive position for guys employed by other teams and who knows if teams would even give those guys permission to take it. If your only option is some guys off the couch and you've got limited time to find someone, a hall of famer that's familiar with the team and vision might not be the worst option.
 
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I agree it's odd, but I think it's an odd situation.

Assistant coaches aren't usually fired along with a head coach. 99.9% of the time the new coach comes in and works with the assistants of the past coach. Having an assistant vacancy along with the head coach vacancy is odd.

I'm just making the point that finding an assistant coach mid-season is probably pretty difficult. That isn't an overly attractive position for guys employed by other teams and who knows if teams would even give those guys permission to take it. If your only option is some guys off the couch and you've got limited time to find someone, a hall of famer that's familiar with the team and vision might not be the worst option.
To hire a new Head coach and then stick him with an assistant that is friends with the owner and doesnt even want the job?
I dont even think that happens 0.1% of the time.

This...is a first. :nod:
 
To hire a new Head coach and then stick him with an assistant that is friends with the owner and doesnt even want the job?
I dont even think that happens 0.1% of the time.

This...is a first. :nod:
Like I said in my other post, I think they ended up with someone that didn't want the job because they couldn't find anyone else.

And I'd say that makes sense. If assistant coaches weren't tough to replace when you fire your head coach, you'd think more of them would be replaced at the same time, but I can't find a single other assistant other than Manson who has been hired mid-season.
 
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Like I said in my other post, I think they ended up with someone that didn't want the job because they couldn't find anyone else.

And I'd say that makes sense. If assistant coaches weren't tough to replace when you fire your head coach, you'd think more of them would be replaced at the same time, but I can't find a single other assistant other than Manson who has been hired mid-season.
Absolutely not.
They didnt need to fire Manson.
This was planned.
 
Yeh no shit. And Oilers fans are stupid enough to put this on him. How f***in dumb I swear people want the decade of darkness back asap.
I think fans enjoy negativity and depression here. That's why they want it back so quickly. Pathetic set of fans in Edmonton
 
I see people talking about how much worse they are defensively but don't you think that might have something to do with woodcroft changing the system right before the season? The roster is very similar to last season, there's no reason they should be this much worse defensively.
Yeah. Honestly, it's the only other anomaly out there next to goaltending
 
I think they did. Woodcroft and him were clearly a package deal.
Well...of course that might be the narrative...right?

If this team was truly motivated to be transparent about putting Coffey in the Assistant coach role then they would have (during the press conference) addressed the fact that Coffey's role until yesterday was a personal advisor to Katz and he is no longer in that role.
They didnt even mention it.
It was like they didnt want to draw attention to it.
 
Well...of course that might be the narrative...right?

If this team was truly motivated to be transparent about putting Coffey in the Assistant coach role then they would have (during the press conference) addressed the fact that Coffey's role until yesterday was a personal advisor to Katz and he is no longer in that role.
They didnt even mention it.
It was like they didnt want to draw attention to it.
I think Coffey was almost too transparent in that presser haha. You don't usually hear someone talking about not wanting the job when they're being hired for something.
 
I think Coffey was almost too transparent in that presser haha. You don't usually hear someone talking about not wanting the job when they're being hired for something.
Thats true...he was very honest about that and it wasnt necessarily a positive thing.

They really needed to address his previous role though.
 


It's all damage control, just like when JJ went and contradicted Holland to protect the players, and further elucidating "what actually happened" in a release today.

But it is what it is. The best players on a team will be aware of org changes that are planned. Doesn't mean they are pulling the strings, but they definitely have some influence on the matter.
 

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