Well, this was expected, but such a dumb idea. The Edmonton Oilers have officially fired head coach Jay Woodcraft after only a little over under two years at the helm in light of the team’s HORRIFIC 2-9-1 start.
I get why they did it, but he’s not even remotely close to being the problem.
With the Edmonton Oilers languishing in DEAD LAST place in the NHL after the first month of the season, the team has officially decided to fire head coach Jay Woodcraft despite his short and relatively successful tenure behind the bench. And, even though I get why they fired the guy, I still think it’s sticking a band-aid on a gaping wound.
So, it was pretty obvious after the Oilers were beaten 3-2 by the San Jose Sharks, the very same Sharks team that started out the season with an 11-game losing streak and sat dead last in the NHL prior to the matchup, that something was going to change in Edmonton. Something big.
And that something big ended up being head coach Jay Woodcraft as not even five days after the game, Woodcraft has been packed up and shipped out of Edmonton faster than…well…everyone who stays one minute in the city. Okay, being serious, was Woodcraft the next coming of Al Arbor or Scotty Bowman? No. Was he going to single-handedly turn the Oilers around and get them back in the playoff hunt? Probably not. And was he the guy to fix the underlying issues at the heart of the Oilers early-season disaster? Definitely not.
But the thing is: HE WAS NOT THE ISSUE.
Sure, he wasn’t the solution, but neither has Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, Darnell Nurse, Zach Hyman, Evander Kane, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Jack Campbell (who’s now struggling to keep a .880 SV% in the AHL), Mattias Ekholm, or any of the other huge-contracted players the Oilers have on this roster.
Aside from that 2022 Western Conference Finals run (which ended up in a 4-0 sweep for EDM against the Avs), the Oilers have underachieved under each and every coach who’s been brought in to create a Stanley Cup winner.
Actually, Jay Woodcraft was the most successful of the now-failed and fired head coaches as he not only brought Edmonton to the playoffs in both of his seasons as the head coach, but he also was the only Oilers head coach to get this team past the first round in both of his postseason appearances. Neither Dave Tippett, Todd McLellan, nor the legendary Ken Hitchcock could get continued and constant success out of Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and the Oilers roster over the last seven years.
So, why is Woodcraft being blamed as the major issue behind this team? Oh, that’s right, the real issue has the power of firing and hiring and wanted to shift the blame away from his dreadful track record as the GM of this team. Yes, I’m talking about Ken Holland.
Ever since Ken Holland took over five years ago after his Hall of Fame stint with the Detroit Red Wings (which ended up in them completely collapsing and still being stuck on an 8-year postseason drought), the Oilers have consistently made the playoffs…but they’ve bottomed out time and time again.
When you have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, two of the Top-5 best players in hockey (with McDavid easily being the best), you should have every chance of beating your opponents in the Western Conference to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.
Yet, the Oilers completely choked against the Jets in 2021 when they got swept 4-0, they collapsed against the Avs in 2022 in the WFC, they fumbled their 2nd round series against the Golden Knights in 2023. Why? It’s because Holland has gutted this team’s prospect and salary cap space to bring in aged, has-been, and ineffective role pieces to fill this team’s non-existent depth, while also overpaying decent contributors.
There’s no reason Darnell Nurse should be making $9M+/season, Kane $5M+/season, Campbell $5M+/season, Ekholm (who he traded for) $6M+/season, etc. These players are decent contributors, but they are WAY TOO OVERPAYED and their salaries eat up the cap space needed to bring in actual depth players to support McDavid and Draisaitl.
So, when McDavid and Draisaitl are either injured or playing poorly, this extra cap space would allow you to bring in other players to fall back on and carry you to victory. But Holland screwed that up with his overpayments and poor trades.
We’ll see if new Oilers HC Kris Knoblauch can spark something out of Edmonton for the rest for the season, but I doubt it will last any longer than that with Mr. Dinosaur at the helm.
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