Oilers Fire Head Coach Tippet, Replace Him With Jay Woodcroft

Photo: Andy Devlin/NHLI via Getty Images

According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the Edmonton Oilers fired head coach Dave Tippet and replaced him with Jay Woodcroft on Thursday morning after losing to the Vegas Golden Knights and Chicago Blackhawks (both at home) by a combined score of 8-1 over the past two nights.

Since starting the season an NHL-best 16-5-0, the Oilers have gone 7-13-3 (.370 points percentage is 26th in the league over that span) to fall five points behind the Calgary Flames (who have a game in hand) for the second wild-card spot in the Western Conference. They also trail the Dallas Stars by a point (each team has played 44 games) for ninth.

While the Oilers rank 12th with 3.18 goals-per-game, they are tied for 23rd in goals-against (3.32 per game) with the Blackhawks and in penalty killing efficiency (76.7%) with the Stars. Though, their 27.6% power-play efficiency is good for third.

In 171 regular-season games behind the Oilers bench, Tippet led his group to a 95-62-14 (.596 points percentage) record over three seasons. Though, they went 1-7 over the past two Stanley Cup Playoff tournaments with Tippet leading the realm.

In 1,285 career games as a head coach with the Oilers, Stars, and Arizona Coyotes, Tippet’s teams have gone 648-475-134 (.567 points percentage) in the regular season but 34-48 (.415 winning percentage) in the postseason.

The Oilers are the fifth team this season (Chicago Blackhawks, Vancouver Canucks, Philadelphia Flyers, Montreal Canadiens) to make a coaching change and just the second in as many days (Canadiens, who replaced Dominique Ducharme with Martin St. Louis on Wednesday).

Woodcroft was the bench boss of the Bakersfield Condors, the Oilers’ AHL affiliate, for the past four seasons and led them to the 2020-21 championship in addition to a 18-9-7 record (.632 points percentage) this season.

Woodcroft will make his NHL head coaching debut on Friday night when the Oilers host the New York Islanders (9 PM ET, ESPN+) at Rogers Place.

I’m told Woodcroft and Manson take over bench in Edmonton. Tippett and Playfair fired. https://t.co/1dONdlxckG

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) February 10, 2022