Jay Woodcroft falls short of another coaching job as Ducks hire Joel Quenneville

It’s not the first time Woodcroft has been passed over since the Oilers fired him in November 2023 as last fall when the Columbus Blue Jackets hired Dean Evason over him. Last April, he was also connected to a then-vacant head coaching spot with the San Jose Sharks and a month later, loosely to the New Jersey Devils.

Woodcroft has been linked by Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek to the vacant spot in Philadelphia, while Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli felt that with so many open spots, it would be hard to imagine him not landing one.

“It will be a real shock if Woodcroft doesn’t get another crack during this coaching cycle. He makes the cut in this tier of coaches simply because of his record. If you lop off the 3-9-1 start that got him canned in Edmonton, his .683 points percentage is the third-highest in NHL history of any coach with at least one full year at the helm. He’s won at least one round in both of his playoff appearances and he did it in a red-hot Canadian market. And at 48, Woodcroft is the youngest guy in this tier, someone who can connect with and relate to the younger generation of today’s players.”

Since leaving the Oilers organization, Woodcroft has spent time travelling the world to learn from other coaching staffs — as well as spending some time at the Flyers’ training camp last year — to stay up on coaching techniques.

Woodcroft got his start in coaching with the Detroit Red Wings as a video coach in 2005-06, holding the role for three years before following Todd McLellan to the San Jose Sharks as an assistant coach where the pair worked from 2008-09 through 2014-15. The pair then arrived in Edmonton in 2015-16 in the same roles, but ahead of the 2018-19 season, the Oilers named him the head coach of the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors, where he did great work developing young prospects for the organization.

When Dave Tippett was fired by the Oilers in February 2022, he was named head coach, holding the role through November 2023.