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Oilers Close To Finalizing Coaching Changes |
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Today both of TSN’s heavy hitters – Bob McKenzie and Darren Dreger – tweeted that the Oilers are closing in on final coaching changes. Bob McKenzie reported that the Oilers were very close to announcing Jay Woodcroft’s departure as an Assistant Coach to become the Head Coach of the Bakersfield Condors. In addition, Edmonton seems likely to add Glen Gulutzan and Trent Yawney to the McLellan’s staff.
The Oiler coaching staff was under intense public scrutiny as they failed miserably in a number of key areas this season. Chief among their biggest problems were a bizarre Penalty Kill formation that was wildly inconsistent and contributed to the team finishing 25th in PK% while at one point being the worst ever home PK% in NHL history. The coaching staff only wishes that was the end of their history making efforts. To the best of my knowledge, the Oilers became the first team in NHL history to finish dead last (31st overall) in Power Play efficiency (14.8%) while also having the league scoring champion.
Beyond the PP and the PK, the coaching staff also took heat for refusing to break up McDavid and Draisaitl so that Leon could centre his own line. This goes hand-in-hand with not trying other combinations (RNH and McDavid) until it was too late to save the year. They played Lucic on the top line for 20 games during the worst segment of his NHL career with no regard for what it meant for the team’s success. They favored pets like Caggiula over real prospects like Puljujarvi leading to a crisis in faith for both players.
In total, the team was thoroughly disappointed by the coaches. The Oilers were well within their rights to terminate everyone and start anew. And when the club announced that Paul Coffey – who has no professional coaching experience – was added to McLellan’s team when it was clear McLellan had no say in the decision, the writing was on the wall for the coaches.
When the season was over I wanted the club to part ways with Jim Johnson and Jay Woodcroft, so in terms of what the NHL club is doing, I guess this is the best the Oilers are giving me. There is very little positive I can say about Jay Woodcroft based on what he’s accomplished this past year so it’s difficult for me to praise the decision to let him run the Condors. However, I will outline some of what might be beneficial.
Edmonton’s farm team has underperformed in the only area that matters: Developing young talent. That is due to a combination of factors that are definitely not falling squarely on the shoulders of the Head Coach. However, if the Oilers are serious about using the AHL as a way to get players prepared for the NHL, then having an AHL coach who knows the NHL coach’s system better than anyone else alive can be a positive.
That said, the success of the AHL team will have a lot more to do with the focus put on young players than it will on individual systems played. What Jay Woodcroft has to do if he wants to be successful is the opposite of playing pets and vets. He needs Edmonton’s brightest young prospects playing in important situations and growing.
As for the Oilers bench…McLellan with Yawney and Gulutzan is a definite upgrade over McLellan with Woodcroft and Johnson. Gulutzan blew up on his Flames club and was starting to get a bit of a reputation as the guy who would lose his cool once in a while, but the reality is the Flames were undone by shooting percentages more than they were by the process. Calgary last year was 3rd in shot attempt percentage and 2nd in unblocked attempt percentage during 5v5 play. They were 29th in shooting percentage.
Gulutzan’s team also finished 7th in PK efficiency at 81.8%, which would be the kind of success the Oilers dreamed about having. The weakness is that the Flames were almost as inept on the PP as Edmonton was. From what we can tell, Trent Yawney’s duties were also PK related (the Ducks finished 5th on the PK). So the Oilers would be adding two guys known more for their defense than offense to the coaching staff. There’s just no obvious solution to fixing that Power Play unless Edmonton adds another person specifically for that job.
Overall, it looks like Woodcroft and Johnson are gone and the Oilers are closing in on higher profile additions to the coaching staff at the NHL level. Woodcroft is going to be in charge of a bench for the first time in his life at the AHL level. He may thrive. He may crash and burn. He’s been an NHL assistant for 10 years beside McLellan and it’s now or never for him to be a HC somewhere. I wont go so far to say that I hate the idea of keeping Woodcroft in the organization, but I will say that he’s lucky the Oilers are an organization that hoards employees.
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Edmonton Oilers Blogger • 
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