Jay Woodcroft Opinions

[Tarus]

I thought he was good. Coached the club to a better record than Tippett ever had, and won three playoff series (the most since 2006 by any coach).

As you can see on this thread, Oiler fans on this forum are weird and care more about coaches' demeanor and post-game quotations than about results. Woodcroft was a bit of a windbag in his pressers, but who cares? The club won a lot of games under him and seemed to like him.

The only thing that suffered a bit under Woodcroft was team defence (for all of 15 games) when the genius organization decided to force a particular defensive system on the club, going against the grain of the coaching staff. This, combined with injuries to the club's best forward and defencenan, got Woodcroft fired.

Considering the Oilers got punted from the playoffs due to the deficiencies in the man to man system Woodcroft was employing, the organization made the right call pushing for the zone defense system. He'd probably have kept his job if his training camps weren't such messes that setup the team for bad starts in both years, the injuries to Mcdavid/Ekholm and difficulties in changing over the systems were just the straws that broke the camel's back.

 

[belair]

Hello Oil Country,

I’m curious as a Ducks fan what the general consensus of you all is on Jay Woodcroft. He seems to me at face value to be a good fit for this Ducks roster and a team that I think is ready to take the next step. Lots of signs of improvement this year but an incompetent coach held them back in a lot of ways.

I watched a recent interview he did with Frank Seravelli and I was impressed how he really seems to have dedicated himself to getting better while unemployed but I’m curious from you all’s perspective where you kind of stand on him.

Also….

Beat LA.

If your 7th defenseman is better than your 12th forward, you'll love him.

 

[M Ace]

He is always the smartest in the room....

 

[Fishy McScales]

I don't think we fully know what he is until we see what he learned from his tenure with the Oilers.

That said, he is one of those people who seems to be better at saying the right things in interviews than doing an actual good job.

 

[Behind Enemy Lines]

ESPN Head Coach Hiring Ranking: NHL head coach hiring tiers: Who will get a new job this summer?

Dubas survivor Sullivan will now go to the head of the line. Woodcroft is highly ranked here. Guy will get and deserves a second chance. Will remain to be seen how he adapts and strengthens his strategic and tactical in-game management. As other point out, his handling of training camp set this team back which led to significant confusion and moribund start to the season.

He's got a twenty year base of NHL coaching experience. Seems like a good and decent person. Deserves another chance at some point. How he does without the distortion effect of a McDavid Draisaitl super elites pair driving results remains to be seen.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Can never forgive Woody for the goaltending mis-management that potentially lost Stanley Cups in 2022 and 2023. Koskinen and Campbell probably blow it anyway, but we'll never know after Woody waived the white flag and chose to ride or die behind the disastrous play of Smith and Skinner. The list of coaches who failed to reach the Stanley Cup final with two players supplying Gretzky-level offense has one name on it, Jay Woodcroft.