Just Who Is Jay Woodcroft

The ‘Just Who Is’ series continues with a welcome change in the Oilers coaching staff, Assistant Coach Jay Woodcroft.

With the appointment of Peter Chiarelli as President of Hockey Operations and General Manager during the off season, and the acquisition of the critically acclaimed Connor McDavid – there was no time wasted in cleaning house and searching for new coaching staff.

Shortly after the announcement that the Oilers had hired Head Coach Todd McLellan, changes in the assistant coaching staff soon followed suit. To basically no one’s surprise, Woodcroft, along with Jim Johnson both flew the shark tank in San Jose and trekked to E-Town with McLellan to round out the Oilers bench staff.

A little bit of background on Woodcroft shows that he comes from a very unique hockey family. A snippet from a CBC Hockey Day In Canada article written about the Woodcroft family states:

“How many families have two different Stanley Cup champions, brothers who had lengthy minor pro and European careers, a father who was an accomplished junior goalie, and four hockey-playing uncles, two of whom were Catholic priests and played with the colourful Flying Fathers of Hockey?”

Interesting to say the least! You can read the full article here

Now – let’s get down to business!

Following a six year minor league playing career, spending time with the Corpus Christi Rayz (CHL), Flint Generals (UHL), Anchorage Aces (WCHL), Missouri River Otters (UHL) and Jackson Bandits (ECHL), Woodcroft entered the NHL coaching ranks.

The Toronto native (nobody’s perfect), also spent the 2004-05 season in Germany playing for the Stuttgart Wizards.

39 year old Woodcroft has spent the past seven of his eight Assistant Coaching years in the National Hockey League as an Assistant Coach with the San Jose Sharks.

Prior to joining San Jose, he spent three seasons (2005-2008) on the Detroit Red Wings coaching staff, which includes their 2008 Stanley Cup Championship season.

In his eight seasons in the NHL, Woodcroft has five Western Conference titles, six Division titles, three Presidents’ Trophies and a Stanley Cup championship. Overall, he has been a part of 397 regular season wins,

Let’s be real here – all of the recent former Oilers coaching staff didn’t have this much experience…combined.

EVERY DAMN YEAR – I get pumped up for the Oilers to start playing thinking that everything will be different…but this year, I actually believe that things will change. With great Connor, comes great responsibility… and the Oilers did right by bringing in legitimate management and a legitimate coaching staff to make sure that this team competes and improves. I mean, really…how hard can it be to go anywhere but up with the Oilers…but you get what I’m saying.

Woodcroft is on the cusp of making a name for himself as a head coach in the NHL with stints under Mike Babcock and Todd McLellan – but for now, he’s taking the bench alongside McLellan to turn these bunch of misfits we call the Oilers into a true blue (and orange) competitive NHL hockey team. The future is bright my fellow Oilers fans!

Thanks for reading!