Edmonton Oilers Fire Jay Woodcroft, Hire Kris Knoblauch
Despite a convincing victory last night, the Edmonton Oilers are making a surprising coaching move. They are expected to relieve head coach Jay Woodcroft of his duties, according to Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. According to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, Hartford Wolf Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch will be named the next Oilers head coach.
The Oilers have now officially announced the moves, alongside one more change: Dave Manson is out as an assistant coach for the team, and legendary former Oilers blueliner Paul Coffey has been hired as an assistant coach in Manson’s place. Coffey was previously a senior advisor to the club.
A Zach Hyman hat trick lifted the Edmonton Oilers to a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken last night, though the team still sits second to last in the NHL with a 3-9-1 record. In a Stanley Cup-or-bust season, The Oilers atrociously bad start to the season—highlighted by the team’s dispiriting loss to fellow basement-dwellers, the San Jose Sharks— has now cost Woodcroft his job.
Per the Edmonton Sun’s Terry Jones, this move will be the fifth head coaching change of the Connor McDavid/Leon Draisaitl partnership. Of all the coaches to man the bench for McDavid and Draisaitl, its Woodcroft who has arguably had the most success.
Woodcroft rose from Bakersfield Condors bench boss to the big job in Edmonton, and posted a .643 points percentage across 133 games. That’s the highest in Oilers history, above even the .616 mark posted by legendary coach Glen Sather.
Woodcroft took the Oilers to the Western Conference Final in 2022, where they would fall to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Colorado Avalanche. He lost to the eventual champions once again in 2023, dropping a hard-fought battle with the Vegas Golden Knights.
But with their season on life support, the Oilers needed to make changes in order to resurrect their Stanley Cup hopes. With no cap space to make trades, the easiest path to major change in Edmonton was via a coaching change, and the Oilers have now taken that route.
This is an attractive job due to the presence of the best player in the world on their roster, but there are some issues here. After this season, Draisaitl will have just one year remaining on his contract. If the Oilers fall well short of the playoffs this season, Draisaitl could reasonably question whether he’ll be able to win a Stanley Cup in Edmonton should he commit what is likely to be the rest of his prime years to the franchise.
McDavid has an extra year on his contract, so there will naturally be questions regarding his future as well, though the hire of his former agent Jeff Jackson as the team’s CEO of hockey operations position makes it more likely he’ll eventually reach a deal on a contract extension.
Those questions are all for the offseason and beyond, though. The Oilers have a more immediate problem to wrestle with: how are they going to revive their playoff chances in a season where they were viewed by many as a true Stanley Cup contender? Now with Woodcroft out, it appears the Oilers believe the first step to answering that question is a coaching change.
The choice of the next Oilers coach appears to be at least somewhat McDavid-oriented. Knoblauch was McDavid’s coach in the OHL with the Erie Otters, and he won an OHL title with the team in 2016-17. A two-time championship-winning coach in the CHL, Knoblauch, 45, is in his fifth season as the bench boss of the Wolf Pack.
He led the team on a run to the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs last season, upsetting the favored Providence Bruins along the way. He leaves Hartford this season with a 7-3-1 record.
The New York Post’s Mollie Walker reports that Wolf Pack assistant coach Steve Smith will take up head coaching duties in the immediate term, although the search for the team’s next head coach will “begin immediately.” Smith is actually a former Oilers coach himself, having served as an assistant on three separate coaching staffs from 2010 to 2014.
Knoblauch hasn’t been an NHL head coach before, save for a short stint during the pandemic when health-related absences put him behind the Rangers’ bench due to necessity. But despite his lack of NHL experience, he was viewed as a contender for the Rangers’ vacancy before they hired Peter Laviolette. Now, he gets his first shot behind an NHL bench with some former players on his roster and an immediate, pressing task ahead: save the Oilers season.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
Flames’ Nikita Zadorov Requests Trade
8:38 p.m.: Three teams have documented interest in Zadorov’s services, per TSN’s Darren Dreger: the Toronto Maple Leafs, Vancouver Canucks and New Jersey Devils. All three teams would need to ship out a contract with a similar cap hit to Zadorov’s $3.75MM to make a deal work.
7:35 a.m.: ESPN’s Kevin Weekes is reporting that Calgary Flames defenseman Nikita Zadorov has requested a trade to another team. TSN Insider Pierre LeBrun also tweeted about the situation, adding that Zadorov’s agent Dan Milstein is hoping for a quick resolution. The news of the request came out after the Flames 5-4 overtime loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs last night, a game in which Zadorov had a goal and a huge hit in the third period.
Calgary has had a disastrous start to the season at 4-7-2 and is feeling like a team that will see a lot of changes in the next 12 months. Zadorov is a pending unrestricted free agent, as are his teammates Noah Hanifin, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, and Oliver Kylington.
For his part, Zadorov has had a good start to the season with a goal and four assists in 12 games. The 6-foot-6 rearguard has been able to help the Flames drive play while averaging two hits a game. The 28-year-old is averaging over 18 minutes of ice time a game this year which is right in line with his career average. Any team that acquires the native of Moscow, Russia would be getting a big hulking defenseman who can provide physicality, block shots, kill penalties and chip in a bit offensively.
On the topic of acquiring teams, NHL Insider Chris Johnston is reporting that Zadorov would welcome a trade to Toronto. The Maple Leafs could certainly use the skillset that Zadorov would bring, however, he is in the final year of a two-year $7.5MM contract that carries a cap hit of $3.75MM. This would require the Flames to retain half of Zadorov’s cap hit and for Toronto to find a way to maneuver other money off their books. In fact, given that over half of the NHL is within a million dollars of the salary cap ceiling, the Flames will likely have to take some salary back to facilitate a move.
The Flames will be engaging with as many teams as possible in the coming days, so it’s hard to speculate where Zadorov could end up. Calgary could be in for a lot of trade talks in the coming weeks with Zadorov being the first domino to fall for the Flames.
Wild Activate Jared Spurgeon, Send Daemon Hunt To AHL
4:10 PM: Minnesota Wild head coach Dean Evason announced that Spurgeon will, indeed, play in the team’s Friday night outing.
4:00 PM: The Minnesota Wild have activated team captain Jared Spurgeon from long-term injured reserve and sent Daemon Hunt to the minor leagues. Spurgeon has been on injured reserve for the entirety of the early season, battling an upper-body injury.
Getting Spurgeon back is a tremendous boost to a Wild lineup that’s struggled to get on the right side of the win column. The team currently has a 5-6-2 record through 13 games, ranking them sixth in the Central Division. But now they get back a pillar of their lineup in Spurgeon, who has averaged over 21 minutes of ice time for the club in every season since 2011-12. He scored 11 goals and 34 points last season, taking a slight step down from the 40 points he managed in the 2021-22 campaign.
Daemon Hunt appeared in his first five NHL games while helping to fill in for Spurgeon. He wasn’t able to net his first NHL box stat though, going without a point, penalty, or change in his +/-. He’ll return to the AHL’s Iowa Wild, where he’s already played four games this season – failing to record a point in those games as well, although he did record seven penalty minutes and a -3.
With the news of his Friday return, Spurgeon will have missed 12 games to start the season. The 33-year-old defenseman will have the potential to play in, at most, 69 games this season. The team captain is chasing his 400th NHL point, currently sitting 21 points back from the milestone
Flames Recall Dustin Wolf
The Calgary Flames recalled top goalie prospect Dustin Wolf from the AHL’s Calgary Wranglers on Thursday, per a team release.
Wolf is regarded as one of the best netminding prospects in the entire NHL, alongside the Minnesota Wild’s Jesper Wallstedt. The 22-year-old has won the Baz Bastien Memorial Award for the AHL’s best goaltender in both of his two pro seasons with the Wranglers, posting a remarkable .927 SV%, 2.24 GAA, eight shutouts, and 82-21-7 record since turning pro in 2021.
The Gilroy, California-born netminder also won the WHL’s Del Wilson Trophy for the league’s best goalie in back-to-back seasons before turning pro and was named the CHL’s Goaltender of the Year in 2020, so the 2019 seventh-round pick has already racked up quite the trophy count despite playing just one NHL game to date. That lone appearance came on April 12, 2023, stopping 23 of 24 shots en route to a 3-1 win over the San Jose Sharks (thanks to an unlikely hat trick from defenseman Nikita Zadorov).
This recall does not signal the upcoming trade of current Flames backup goalie Daniel Vladar, Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet reports. Instead, Wolf has been summoned as injury insurance to either Vladar or starter Jacob Markström during the team’s upcoming three-game Eastern Canada road swing. The youngster is traveling to Toronto today to meet the rest of the team ahead of Friday’s matchup against the Maple Leafs.
However, it would not be surprising to see Wolf get one start during the trip, likely against the Ottawa Senators or Montreal Canadiens. Both Markström and Vladar have again struggled this season, especially the latter, who has a .844 SV% and 4.00 GAA through three starts. Markström is also tracking to have his second straight below-average season with a .896 SV% and a 2-6-1 record in nine starts.
Wolf, meanwhile, is off to another good start for the Wranglers. His .924 SV% ranks top-15 in the league through six games, and his five wins are tied for the league lead. To make room on the 23-man roster, forward Dryden Hunt was assigned to the Wranglers yesterday after clearing waivers.
Edmonton Oilers Place Jack Campbell On Waivers, Recall Calvin Pickard
Nov. 8: As expected, Campbell has cleared waivers, and Pickard has been recalled from AHL Bakersfield, per the team’s Twitter/X account.
Nov. 7: In a surprising announcement, the Edmonton Oilers have placed goaltender Jack Campbell on waivers today, for the purpose of assignment. With plenty of changes seemingly coming to the Oilers after a horrific start to the year, Edmonton has decided to expose Campbell and the $20MM remaining on his contract to the rest of the league.
Back during the 2021-22 regular season, the Oilers ran with a duo of Mikko Koskinen and Mike Smith throughout the year, a duo who led the team to the Western Conference Finals before ultimately being swept at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche. In an attempt to dramatically improve their goaltending, Edmonton inked Campbell to a five-year, $25MM contract, prying him away from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
However, the investment has not gone accordingly for either side of the deal. In his first year as an Oiler, Campbell maintained a solid 21-9-4 record in 34 starts but also carried a .888 SV% and a 3.41 GAA. Ultimately, Campbell was replaced in the crease by rookie netminder, Stuart Skinner, who held a .913 SV% and a 2.75 GAA in 48 starts, comparatively. Nevertheless, Campbell was able to get in four starts during the 2022-23 NHL playoffs, posting dramatically improved numbers with a .961 SV% and a 1.01 GAA.
If there was any hope of Campbell carrying his playoff performance in this year’s regular season, that hope has quickly evaporated. In five starts on the year up to this point, Campbell has a 1-4-0 record, coupled with a .873 SV% and a 4.50 GAA. Although not the entire reason, the lack of adequate goaltending is a substantial factor in the Oilers’ ugly 2-8-1 record to start the 2023-24 season.
In the meantime, as it would be more than reasonable to assume Campbell will go unclaimed on waivers over the next 24 hours, PuckPedia reports that Edmonton will save approximately $1.15MM once Campbell clears and is sent down. Furthermore, Frank Seravalli of the DailyFaceoff indicates that the Oilers plan on replacing Campbell with Calvin Pickard, who is currently serving as the primary starter of the team’s AHL affiliate, the Bakersfield Condors. If the team does call up Pickard, PuckPedia reports that Edmonton will only be saving approximately $388K with the move.
Although Pickard should not be seen as a long-term answer in the net, he ultimately may serve as an upgrade to both Edmonton goaltenders. Similarly to Campbell, Skinner has gotten off to an incredibly slow start with a 1-4-1 record, .856 SV%, and a 3.99 GAA. Pickard, on the other hand, holds a 2-2-0 record for the Condors so far this season, with a .939 SV% and a 2.03 GAA.
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet was the first to report that the Oilers were placing Campbell on waivers.
Max Pacioretty Hopeful To Return This Season
Max Pacioretty rejoined the Washington Capitals team skates this week, providing the first big step in his return from his second torn Achilles’ tendon. And now, per NHL.com’s Mike Vogel, both the team and the player are hopeful that a return could come soon. Pacioretty told Vogel, “I feel like I’m getting my life back… I’m having fun. I’ve only skated three times, but this is what I was born to do, so it feels like there’s some normalcy in my life, and I definitely have much more of a smile on my face now that I’m skating.” Pacioretty went on to mention that there was a point where he considered whether this injury would bring an end to his career or not, but that he ultimately felt he had more hockey in the tank.
That’s incredibly exciting news for the Capitals. The club took a flyer on the 34-year-old winger this summer, signing him to a one-year, $2MM contract, despite the second Achilles injury, hoping they could bring Pacioretty back to the goal-scoring prowess that he had earlier in his career. Pacioretty has scored 30 or more goals in six different seasons, including a career-high 39 goals in the 2013-14 season. And despite missing pieces of the last three seasons with injury, he’s maintained his production into his veteran years. The winger scored three goals in five games with Carolina last season, and had 19 goals and 37 points in 39 games with Vegas in 2021-22: his last taste of substantial ice time. In fact, Pacioretty hasn’t scored below 35 points since the 2010-11 season, excluding last year.
That’s encouraging consistency that could be nicely timed for a Washington team faced with the absence of star centerman Nicklas Backstrom. The team hasn’t released an official timeline for when Pacioretty may be able to return but the optimism from both parties hints that it may not be a terribly long wait. Regardless of when he’s able to return, Pacioretty’s eagerness to get back to where he was is exciting to see.
Hurricanes’ Frederik Andersen Out Indefinitely With Blood Clotting Issue
5:58 p.m.: The team has officially recalled Kochetkov from the Crunch while placing Andersen on the injured reserve.
1:08 p.m.: Carolina Hurricanes netminder Frederik Andersen will be sidelined indefinitely after recent medical testing discovered a blood clotting issue, per a statement from GM Don Waddell.
Andersen, 34, has made the most starts of any Hurricanes netminder this season with six. The NHL’s first-ever Danish goalie has a 4-1-0 record, .894 SV% and 2.87 GAA this season, all leading the team.
Waddell said there is no timetable for Andersen to rejoin the team, but the team is “confident that Freddie will be able to make a full recovery.” Andersen last played in the Hurricanes’ 2-1 loss to the New York Rangers on Thursday, stopping 24 of 26 shots.
He was heating up after a slow start to the season, posting a .925 SV% in his last three games after recording a subpar .855 SV% through his first three. The veteran of nearly 500 NHL games is in his 11th season in the league and his third with Carolina.
With their starter sidelined, Carolina now turns to veteran Antti Raanta to handle the bulk of the starts for the foreseeable future. Like all the Hurricanes’ goalies, Raanta’s body of work in 2023-24 hasn’t been impressive despite his 3-1-0 record. His current .870 SV% is his worst mark since his rookie campaign in 2013-14 with the Chicago Blackhawks. However, he has the team’s only shutout of the season – a 20-save effort against the lowly San Jose Sharks late last month.
The 34-year-old Dane signed a one-year, $1.5MM deal widely viewed as a discount to remain in Carolina just minutes before free agency opened last July. Raanta has primarily been an above-average netminder over his 11 seasons in the league but struggles to avoid injuries. Despite mainly serving in a tandem capacity with Andersen since the pair signed in Raleigh in 2021, Raanta made more than 30 starts just once in the five preceding seasons.
To provide some extra depth behind Raanta, the Hurricanes signed veteran backup Jaroslav Halák to a professional tryout this morning, likely with the former’s injury history in mind. Halák, 38, has over 500 games of NHL experience and posted a .903 SV% and 10-9-5 in 24 starts with the New York Rangers but cannot appear in a game for Carolina until he signs a contract.
For the time being, the team’s top goalie prospect, Pyotr Kochetkov, will serve as Raanta’s backup. While he’s currently on loan to the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, Cory Lavalette of the North State Journal reported earlier Monday that the team is expected to recall him ahead of Tuesday’s game against the Buffalo Sabres.
After putting up above-average numbers in 23 starts with the Hurricanes last season, Kochetkov has struggled early on in 2023-24, losing all three of his NHL appearances and posting a .836 SV% and 4.33 GAA. He’s done well in a tough situation in the minors, however, backstopping the Tampa Bay Lightning’s affiliate in Syracuse with a .932 SV% and one shutout through three appearances.
Unfortunately for the Crunch, it doesn’t appear that Kochetkov will return to them anytime soon with Andersen sidelined. The 24-year-old Russian netminder was drafted 36th overall by the Hurricanes in 2019.
Surprisingly, the Hurricanes have struggled to keep the puck out of their net this season despite the highly-publicized addition of Dmitry Orlov to their backend with a two-year, $15.5MM deal in free agency. They’ve allowed 42 goals through 12 games, the most of any team in the Eastern Conference.
Despite that, they still have a 7-5-0 record and sit third in the Metro with 14 points. It’ll be up to Raanta and Kochetkov to improve their play in short order to keep them in playoff position.
PHR extends its best wishes to Andersen and shares in the Hurricanes’ hopes for a full recovery.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
Jack Hughes Suffers Upper-Body Injury
November 5th: In more unfortunate news surrounding Hughes, the Devils announce that Hughes will be on a week-to-week recovery timeline, and he has not traveled with the team to Chicago.
November 4th: New Jersey Devils superstar forward Jack Hughes left last night’s eventual 4-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues with an upper-body injury, per team reporter Amanda Stein.
Midway through the first period, Hughes crashed into the boards at a significant velocity, and he was slow to get up with the impact appearing to largely be endured by his head and right shoulder. Hughes is still to be fully evaluated by the team, meaning the full extent of the injury he suffered is, at this moment, unknown.
Should Hughes miss any time, his absence would represent the biggest loss the Devils could possibly suffer from any one injury.
Hughes, 22, is the Devils’ most important player. He currently leads the entire NHL in scoring with 20 points in just 10 games, and he could even be considered an early contender for the Hart Trophy due to Connor McDavid‘s injury and the Oilers’ general struggles.
He plays in the all-important first-line center role for the Devils, skating in between Timo Meier and Tyler Toffoli. In the case that Hughes does miss some time, the Devils’ depth chart at center would be dealt another blow.
Team captain and second-line center Nico Hischier did not dress for last night’s game due to injury, meaning any Hughes absence could come at a time when the team is also missing its second-best pivot.
The result of both players being absent at one time could be that crucial top-six center roles are trusted to players originally planned to be bottom-six pivots, such as Erik Haula or Michael McLeod.
Any extended Hughes absence, especially when combined with injuries to Hischier and Tomas Nosek, could have a ripple effect covering the entire Devils’ organization. Veteran Chris Tierney is already in the Devils’ NHL lineup now, and a Hughes injury could even prompt the team to recall another center from their AHL affiliate, the Uitca Comets, just in order to be able to dress four players at the position.
The Comets are currently led in scoring by Xavier Parent and Max Willman, two players who are far from established top-end AHL players. The ripple effect of the Hughes injury could make it so Utica is even more reliant on those two centers, which might not be ideal if their early-season success is not an indication of how they’ll be able to produce on an extended basis.
Photos courtesy of USA Today Sports Images
New York Rangers Place Adam Fox On LTIR, Filip Chytil On IR
In unfortunate news for the New York Rangers, Vince Z. Mercogliano of USA Today is reporting the team will place defenseman Adam Fox on long-term injured reserve. In a follow-up note, Mercogliano also relays the team is also expected to place forward Filip Chytil on injured reserve, meaning he will be out for at least the next week.
After colliding with Sebastian Aho in last night’s win against the Carolina Hurricanes, the expectation is that Fox will miss the next two to four weeks with a lower-body injury. It is a massive blow to a rolling Rangers team, who have won their last six games and sit at the top of the Metropolitan Division.
Fox continues to score at a rapid pace, scoring three goals and eight assists in the team’s first 10 games, averaging just over 21 minutes of ice time per night. With nine of those points coming on the powerplay, he is one of the primary reasons the team’s powerplay is humming at a solid 32.43% success rate to start the year.
The team does have other defensemen they can lean on for the time being, such as K’Andre Miller, who has provided the team with one goal and six assists through the first 10 games, but no other defenseman on the roster truly offers what Fox is able to bring to the team. One of the best offensive contributors in the league on the blue line, New York will have to go the next couple of weeks without one of their most important players.
Chytil, on the other hand, is also another important piece to have missing, but it will likely only be for the next three games. Sitting sixth on the team in scoring so far, Chytil has six assists on the year, without yet scoring a goal. In the meantime, due to their depth at the center position, Chytil’s spot in the lineup will likely be filled by Vincent Trocheck between Artemi Panarin and Alexis Lafreniere.
Panthers’ Sam Bennett Out Week-To-Week
The Panthers have listed forward Sam Bennett as being out week-to-week with a lower-body injury, head coach Paul Maurice told Jameson Olive of the Panthers’ official site on Friday.
Bennett, 27, had missed the first seven games of the season with a lower-body injury and sustained a second one just 7:54 into his return to play on October 30 against the Boston Bruins. Bennett needed help exiting the playing surface and could not put weight on his left leg after an awkward fall with Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm behind the net in the second period of Florida’s overtime loss.
The Panthers have been dealing with injuries all season long, and it’s reflected in their up-and-down 5-3-1 record through nine games. The defending Eastern Conference champions have been bolstered by solid play in the crease from both Sergei Bobrovsky and Anthony Stolarz, although the latter has only made one appearance.
Missing Bennett certainly won’t help jumpstart their depth scoring, which has surprisingly been an issue through the first few weeks of the season. Only four forwards are operating at over 0.5 points per game – their entire top line of Aleksander Barkov, Sam Reinhart and Evan Rodrigues, as well as Matthew Tkachuk on the second line. Players like Carter Verhaeghe (three goals, one assist in nine games) and Eetu Luostarinen (one assist in nine games) have struggled, and it’s not helping matters with both Aaron Ekblad and Brandon Montour still sidelined on the blue line.
The Ontario-born Bennett is in the third season of a four-year, $17.7MM extension he signed with the Panthers in 2021. He was limited to 63 games last season with injuries but recorded 40 points – a career-high 52-point pace across 82 games. He excelled in the Panthers’ run to the Stanley Cup Final, too, racking up 15 points in 20 games.