Struggling Oilers fire Woodcroft, hire AHL coach
Jay Woodcroft is out as coach of the Edmonton Oilers after a team that was supposed to be a Stanley Cup contender lost 10 of its first 13 games.
Woodcroft was fired Sunday at the end of the team’s road trip, which wrapped up with a 4-1 win at Seattle on Saturday night. That victory was not enough to save Woodcroft’s job in the aftermath of a four-game losing streak, including an embarrassing 3-2 loss at the NHL-worst San Jose Sharks earlier in the week.
Kris Knoblauch, Connor McDavid‘s junior hockey coach, was named Woodcroft’s replacement, and Hall of Famer Paul Coffey joins his staff as an assistant, with Dave Manson also dismissed. Knoblauch becomes the organization’s 10th coach in 15 seasons and the fifth since McDavid joined the team in 2015.
After the loss in San Jose on Thursday night, Woodcroft said he wasn’t worried about his job security.
“No one’s happy with where we’re at,” Woodcroft said. “We all own it. We can be better, and that’s where my focus is.”
The Oilers had lost focus under Woodcroft, himself a midseason replacement in February 2022, when Dave Tippett was fired. Despite having the reigning MVP in McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, they were losing because of a combination of league-worst goaltending, porous defending and a lack of accountability.
“I don’t really know what to say,” Draisaitl said Thursday night. “We tend to outshoot other teams consistently, probably outchance other teams consistently. Not in sync right now.”
Goaltenders Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell — the latter of whom was waived and sent to the minors earlier this week — have combined for a team save percentage of .866, which ranks last in the NHL. Edmonton has allowed nearly four goals per game and at 3-9-1 is above only San Jose in the standings with seven points.
“We can’t really be looking at the standings right now,” said forward Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, the organization’s longest-tenured player. “Just because it’s the start of the season it feels a little different. But we’re the same team that we’ve always been. It feels weird right now.”
Even weirder? McDavid — whose 153 points last season were the most of any player since 1995-96 — was held off the score sheet in the past two games.
McDavid did miss time last month with an undisclosed upper-body injury but still has 10 points in 10 games, while Draisaitl leads the team with 15. Still, only six teams are averaging fewer goals than the Oilers’ 2.69 per game entering Sunday’s action.
This was seen as the season for the Oilers to get over the hump in the playoffs and win the franchise’s first championship since 1990. Instead, the brutal start has significantly hampered their chances of making the postseason.
“We’re ready to win. We’re ready to do whatever it takes to win, more importantly,” Draisaitl said before the start of training camp. “We’re definitely not far away. I certainly feel that way. I think we all do. I think the entire league feels that way about us.”
General manager Ken Holland certainly did, talking last summer about being all-in on winning in the final year of his contract. Now the experienced executive’s roster construction is under the microscope given Edmonton’s struggles all over the ice.
Nowhere was that more evident than in the Oilers’ inability to keep the puck out of their net, a constant problem, with the responsibility split among the goalies, defensemen and forwards. Woodcroft ultimately paid the price in large part because he failed to correct players’ habits, not benching them after making costly mistakes and failing to make the necessary adjustments.
That job now falls to Knoblauch, who had been coaching the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack. He coached McDavid with the Erie Otters for three seasons from 2012 to 2015 and led them to an Ontario Hockey League championship and trip to the Memorial Cup in 2017.
Knoblauch, 45, was in his fifth season with Hartford, the top affiliate of the New York Rangers, after spending two years as an assistant with the Philadelphia Flyers. He served as acting coach for a handful of NHL games with the Rangers in 2021 and 2022.
Steve Smith takes over as the Wolf Pack’s interim coach, and the organization will immediately begin the search for a permanent head coach.
LAS VEGAS — Left-handers Chris Sale of the Atlanta Braves and Garrett Crochet of the Chicago White Sox won Major League Baseball’s Comeback Player of the Year awards on Thursday.
Cleveland right-hander Emmanuel Clase won his second AL Reliever of the Year award and St. Louis righty Ryan Helsley won the NL honor.
Los Angeles Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani joined David Ortiz as the only players to win four straight Outstanding Designated Hitter awards. Ohtani and the New York Yankees‘ Aaron Judge won Hank Aaron Awards as the outstanding offensive performers in their leagues.
Major League Baseball made the announcements at its All-MLB Awards Show.
Sale, 35, was 18-3 with a 2.38 ERA and 225 strikeouts in 177⅔ innings for the NL’s first pitching triple crown since the Dodgers’ Clayton Kershaw in 2011. He earned his eighth All-Star selection and first since 2018.
Sale helped Boston to the 2018 World Series title but made just 56 starts from 2020-23, going 17-18 with a 4.86 ERA, 400 strikeouts and 79 walks over 298⅓ innings. He was acquired by Boston from the White Sox in December 2016 and made nine trips to the injured list with the Red Sox, mostly with shoulder and elbow ailments. He had Tommy John surgery on March 30, 2020, and returned to a big league mound on Aug. 14, 2021.
Sale fractured a rib while pitching in batting practice in February 2022 during the management lockout. On July 17, in his second start back, he broke his left pinkie finger when he was hit by a line drive off the bat of the Yankees’ Aaron Hicks. Sale broke his right wrist while riding a bicycle en route to lunch on Aug. 6, ending his season.
Crochet, 25, was 6-12 with a 3.58 ERA over 32 starts for a White Sox team that set a post-1900 record of 121 losses, becoming a first-time All-Star. He struck out 209 and walked 33 in 146 innings.
He had Tommy John surgery on April 5, 2022, and returned to the major leagues on May 18, 2023. Crochet had a 3.55 ERA in 13 relief appearances in 2023, and then joined the rotation this year.
Sale and Crochet were chosen in voting by MLB.com beat writers.
Clase and Helsley were unanimous picks by a panel that included Hall of Famers Trevor Hoffman, Mariano Rivera, Dennis Eckersley and Rollie Fingers, along with John Franco and Billy Wagner. The AL award is named after Rivera and the NL honor after Hoffman.
A three-time All-Star, Clase was 4-2 with a 0.61 ERA, 66 strikeouts and 10 walks in 74⅓ innings, holding batters to a .154 average. The 26-year-old converted 47 of 50 save chances, including his last 47.
Voting was based on the regular season. Clase was 0-2 with a 9.00 ERA in the playoffs, allowing three home runs, one more than his regular-season total.
Helsley, a two-time All-Star, was 7-4 with a 2.04 ERA and 49 saves in 53 chances. He struck out 79 and walked 23 in 66⅓ innings.
Ohtani became the first player with 50 or more homers and 50 or more stolen bases in a season. A two-way star limited to hitting following elbow surgery, Ohtani batted .310 and led the NL with 54 homers and 130 RBIs while stealing 59 bases.
Ortiz won the DH award five years in a row from 2003-07.
The DH award, named after Edgar Martinez, is picked in voting by team beat writers, broadcasters and public relations departments. MLB.com writers determined the finalists for the Aaron awards, and a fan vote was combined with picks from a panel of Hall of Famers and former winners to determine the selections.
Judge led the major leagues with 58 homers and 144 RBIs while hitting .322.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida quarterback DJ Lagway is “ready to play,” coach Billy Napier said Thursday on his weekly radio show.
Napier removed Lagway from the team’s injury report and penciled him in to start against No. 21 LSU in the Swamp on Saturday.
Lagway practiced every day this week while progressing from a strained left hamstring. The highly touted freshman was carted off the field against Georgia on Nov. 2. Tests revealed a “less significant” injury than initially feared, and now he’s back in time to face the Tigers.
The Gators (4-5, 2-4 Southeastern Conference) need him. They have to win two of their final three regular-season games to become bowl eligible.
LSU (6-3, 3-2) has struggled mightily against dual-threat QBs, including Alabama’s Jalen Milroe, who ran for 185 yards and four touchdowns last week.
Lagway returns after walk-on and Yale transfer Aidan Warner started in his place against Texas. Warner threw two interceptions and was 12-of-25 passing for 132 yards in a 49-17 loss.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
No. 12 Georgia will be without leading rusher Trevor Etienne for Saturday’s showdown against No. 7 Tennessee.
Etienne was downgraded from questionable to out on Thursday night’s SEC availability report.
Etienne left Georgia’s win over Florida with an upper-body injury on Nov. 2 and did not return. He played limited snaps in last week’s 28-10 loss at Ole Miss, carrying the ball six times for 24 yards.
Etienne leads the Bulldogs with 477 rushing yards and seven touchdowns this season.
The loss is another blow to Georgia’s banged-up backfield. Cash Jones is also listed as questionable while Branson Robinson remains out after missing the past three games with a knee injury.
That leaves true freshman Nate Frazier as the only healthy Bulldogs running back who has played meaningful snaps this year. Frazier is second on the team with 333 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
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