Oilers ‘couldn’t wait,’ fire Woodcroft for AHL coach

The Edmonton Oilers couldn’t wait any longer. And head coach Jay Woodcroft paid the price.

Edmonton fired Woodcroft — along with assistant coach Dave Manson — on Sunday amid an abysmal 3-9-1 start from an Oilers team heavily favored to compete for a Stanley Cup.

Kris Knoblauch — most recently head coach of the New York Rangers‘ American Hockey League affiliate Hartford Wolfpack — was swiftly hired as Woodcroft’s replacement. Paul Coffey, the franchise’s legendary defenseman and long-time advisor within the Oilers organization, will join Knoblauch’s staff as an assistant coach.

It took just 13 games for Edmonton to explode its bench. Small sample size or not, general manager Ken Holland said the Oilers have already lost the luxury of taking their time.

“We weren’t playing good enough,” Holland said in a news conference Sunday afternoon. “I think there’s lots of runway left with this change to try to make a surge here and try to play our way back into the mix. I don’t think [the players tuned Woodcroft] out; I don’t think [he] lost them. But I couldn’t wait around for another 10 games or 15 games to find out.”

Holland barely wasted a moment. After Edmonton lost to the league-worst San Jose Sharks on Thursday (who hadn’t recorded a win prior to their 3-2 victory over the Oilers), Holland consulted with newly instated CEO of Hockey Operations Jeff Jackson on the best course of action. Jackson said together he and Holland decided Woodcroft had to go, and the wheels were put in motion even as Woodcroft was coaching Edmonton to a 4-1 victory over Seattle on Saturday night.

While the team was away, Holland received permission from the Rangers to speak with Knoblauch — whom Holland had previously considered for an AHL coaching job when he was GM of the Detroit Red Wings — and negotiated a contract that got over the line “at some point” during Edmonton’s win against the Kraken.

That victory was thought to maybe buy more time for Woodcroft to right the ship. Ultimately, it would be his swan song.

Woodcroft was hardly given a long leash; he himself was hired as a midseason replacement for Dave Tippett in February 2022, and this marks the first time in Holland’s management career he’s churned through a pair of coaches consecutively who didn’t make it to the end of a year.

Now Knoblauch has the keys — and a keen history with Edmonton superstar Connor McDavid. From 2012 to 2017, Knoblauch coached the Ontario Hockey League’s Erie Otters and during that time shepherded several current NHLers including McDavid, Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome and current Oilers forward Connor Brown. Although Knoblauch has limited previous NHL head-coaching experience — he previously served two seasons as an assistant for Philadelphia — Jackson, who also happens to be McDavid’s agent, said none of the Oilers’ leadership group was involved in Knoblauch’s hiring.

“We didn’t consult with the players on this decision,” Jackson said. “Never spoke with Connor or Leon [Draisaitl] or [Ryan Nugent-Hopkins] or [Darnell Nurse]. These guys are here to play hockey and that’s what they want to do. They don’t like being involved in these types of decisions; that’s my experience. The fact that Kris was Connor’s coach in Erie, it only has something to do with this because I think Kris is a very good coach. Connor didn’t have anything to do with this decision.”

It’s impossible not to tie Edmonton’s core into the change, though. The Oilers have invested a majority of their salary cap into McDavid and Draisaitl, who have perennially delivered as two of the NHL’s most dynamic regular-season performers. This year is different. McDavid’s been hampered by injury and produced two goals and 10 points in 11 games, well off his usual numbers. Draisaitl has collected 15 points in 13 games.

But despite the potency McDavid and Draisaitl can generate up front — and it helped Edmonton advance to the Western Conference Final just two seasons ago — the Oilers have repeatedly fallen short of the Cup aspirations.

Blame for that falls on the players, too. But Holland and Jackson haven’t given up on the Oilers’ potential to succeed.

“I believe in the core,” Holland said. “I think it’s just we’re in the prime [of the season]. The time is now. Could we have waited 10 more games? I can’t read the future. I made the decision to make a change to jump-start our season. I don’t think it’s on the core. The core has done it over the last two years. We just didn’t want to wait around any longer.”

It’s on Knoblauch to turn Edmonton in the right direction — and fast. The 45-year-old brings with him 12 years of minor league head-coaching experience and championships at the WHL and OHL level. Knoblauch got Hartford to its first playoff berth in four years last year, winning a round along the way. The Edmonton gig is, by far, his biggest to date. And he’s entering the eye of a storm.

Edmonton is eight spots out of a Western Conference wild-card spot and owns the 26th-ranked offense (averaging 2.69 goals per game) while sitting 30th overall in goals-against (3.92). Edmonton also ranks last in overall goaltending with an .864 SV% collectively.

Knoblauch acknowledges there’s challenges ahead. He’s been a midseason replacement before and said it went “terribly” but it was still a valuable learning experience. He also sees an Edmonton team ready to face it head-on, without too much overhandling on his part.

“As the coach coming in, you can only do so much,” he said. “You can only do so much changing the systems and lines. The players have to have some stability. There are things as a coach you want to put your stamp on, and this is really important for me. I see that we’re failing in this area; we need to improve that. But as a coach coming in, you can only do so much. I really want to reach out and talk to the players. I see a very talented team [that’s] underperforming obviously; that’s why I’m here.

“But ultimately, I’m trying to build something [so] we can obviously have success that was anticipated in the year.”

In Knoblauch’s mind, the Oilers should see placement as a “fresh start” the team can rally around. Where that leads Edmonton from here remains to be seen.

“It’s a reset,” said Knoblauch. “Hopefully our players see this and it takes the pressure off them, [like], ‘Alright, let’s get back to basics.’ It’s not going to just happen with a new coach or a new message. But I do think that there is a very strong group in there and they’re a very talented group and things will get worked out.”