The Edmonton Oilers, even after beating the Seattle Kraken on Saturday night, have crawled out to a 3-9-1 record start to the 2023-24 campaign. After entering the season as supposed Stanley Cup contenders, the Oilers have clearly failed to meet expectations, and even a win over the Kraken hasn't changed that. As a result, the team shockingly decided to fire head coach Jay Woodcroft on Sunday afternoon.

Via Elliotte Friedman:

“Edmonton is making a coaching change. Jay Woodcroft being relieved of his duties. Thought last nights win would buy some time, but that’s not the case.”

Jay Woodcroft becomes the fall guy for the Oilers awful start

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Woodcroft took over as the Oilers coach midway through the 2021-22 season, and promptly led them all the way to the Western Conference Finals that season. Edmonton ended up going on another deep playoff run last year before being eliminated by the eventual champions in the Vegas Golden Knights, leading many to believe that they could be a real contender to win it all this season.

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Yet through 13 games, the Oilers have looked like one of the worst teams in the NHL, despite the fact they still have arguably the two best players in the league in Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on their roster. Woodcroft ends up shouldering the blame for their atrocious start, and finds himself out of a job very early into the new season.

The season is still young, and Edmonton is clearly hoping that they can salvage this season by getting rid of Woodcroft and finding a new coach who can lead them back from this rough start. That coach appears to be Kris Knoblauch, who had been coaching in the AHL at the Hartford Wolf Pack, which is the affiliate squad of the New York Rangers.

Via Frank Seravalli:

“Hearing Kris Knoblauch is incoming as next Oilers coach.”

Knoblauch has ties with McDavid, which helps explain this fairly surprising hire, but he's going to have a lot on his plate in his first NHL head coaching job. Either way, the Oilers felt they needed to turn a new leaf by moving on from Woodcroft, and it will be interesting to see whether the team continues to struggle, or finally figures things out now that he's gone.