Tippett fired as coach of Oilers, replaced by Woodcroft

Dave Tippett was fired as coach of the Edmonton Oilers on Thursday.

The 60-year-old was replaced by Jay Woodcroft, coach of Bakersfield in the American Hockey League. Edmonton associate coach Jim Playfair also was fired.
"I think it's a gut feel," Edmonton Oilers general manager Ken Holland said. "I've been around the National Hockey League, around teams, a long time and I just felt I needed to make (a decision). It's a very difficult day, a tough day, they're both good men, they poured their heart and soul into the Edmonton Oilers for the last two and a half years. ... I felt I needed to make a decision and told 'Tip' and Jim this morning and made a decision to hire Jay Woodcroft and Dave Manson to come here and replace them."
Tippett was 95-62-14 in three seasons with the Oilers and 1-7 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs after he was hired to replace Ken Hitchcock on May 28, 2019. Edmonton has been eliminated in the first round of the postseason the past two seasons, including a four-game sweep by the Winnipeg Jets last season.
"It's a tough day for Oiler fans. We're not winning," Holland said. "We're not meeting expectations. And when I came here, it's disappointing when you lose out to Winnipeg in a sweep but you want to believe your team's heading in the right direction and you want to believe you're growing the team and that you're building and building, and for two years and 20 games, we were doing that. And then the last 20 games, we haven't done that."
The Oilers began the season 16-5-0 but are 7-13-3 since and fifth in the Pacific Division. Edmonton is five points out of the second wild-card position in the Western Conference.
"We need to change something obviously and I'm sure 'Woody' will come in with new ideas, with his philosophy and with his plan and we're all in on that," Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl said Friday. "We've got open ears and we're ready to go. Sometimes a new voice, a different view of certain things can give you a big spark. So hopefully it does that for us and as players, we have to make sure that's what it is."
Holland, who was named GM prior to the 2019-20 season, had never changed a coach in-season (he was general manager of the Detroit Red Wings from 1997-2009). Less than a month ago, he said he believed in Tippett.
"We were in here a couple of weeks ago and I felt when we were on that stretch, there were a lot of circumstances why we were 2-11-2, a lot of injuries, lots of things, then we went to a 5-0-1 stretch heading into the (All-Star) break," Holland said. "We were healthy. With 38 games remaining, I felt that I needed to make a move, because we still control our own fate, but we have to get cracking here and start winning some games."
Edmonton lost home games to the Vegas Golden Knights and Chicago Blackhawks since the All-Star break, outscored 8-1. Connor McDavid said at the 2022 Honda NHL All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas he felt the Oilers were coming out of the funk from Dec. 3-Jan. 20, which caused them to fall from first in the NHL in points percentage (.762, 16-5-0) to sixth in the Pacific Division (.528).
"I think so, yeah," McDavid said Feb. 4. "I just feel like in the room everyone has their confidence back, everyone has got their mojo back. It's a good feeling in the room right now."
Woodcroft was coach for Bakersfield for the past four seasons. The 45-year-old was an Oilers assistant for three seasons (2015-18) and was an assistant with the San Jose Sharks for seven seasons (2008-15). Woodcroft was on the coaching staff for the Red Wings for three seasons with Holland from 2005-08 and won the Stanley Cup in 2008.
Manson, who was an assistant under Woodcroft with Bakersfield, was promoted to assistant with the Oilers. Each will be behind the bench when the Oilers play the New York Islanders on Friday (9 p.m. ET; MSG+, TVAS, SNW, ESPN+, NHL LIVE).
"I'm very much humbled and very privileged to have been named the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers," Woodcroft said Friday. "It's a proud organization in a hard-working city and I'm very much proud to be the head coach of this team. I'm cognizant of the fact it's a game day today, and we don't want our players overthinking, we want them playing and we don't want to see any hesitation in their game."
Tippett was 648-475-134 with 28 ties in 17 NHL seasons with the Oilers, Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes and Dallas Stars.
"Am I comfortable with the decision? Yeah, I'm comfortable with the decision," Holland said. "Did I make the decision? Yeah, I made the final decision. … I just came to the conclusion overnight, this morning. At the end of the day, I built the team, I take full responsibility for where we're at."
Tippett is the fifth NHL coach to be fired this season (Dominique Ducharme, Montreal Canadiens, Feb. 9; Alain Vigneault, Philadelphia Flyers, Dec. 6; Travis Green, Vancouver Canucks, Dec. 5; Jeremy Colliton, Chicago Blackhawks, Nov. 6). Paul Maurice resigned as Winnipeg Jets coach Dec. 17, and Joel Quenneville resigned as Florida Panthers coach Oct. 28 after being implicated in an independent investigation into the Blackhawks for allegations by former player Kyle Beach of sexual assault by then-video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010.
NHL.com staff writer Tim Campbell and independent correspondent Derek Van Diest contributed to this report