The Edmonton Oilers fired head coach Jay Woodcroft and assistant coach Dave Manson, the franchise introduced Sunday. Here’s what you want to know:

• Edmonton is 3-9-1 this season, tied for the second-worst report within the NHL. The Oilers have misplaced eight of their final 10 video games.
• Hartford Wolf Pack head coach Kris Knoblauch will change Woodcroft in Edmonton on an interim foundation. Steve Smith will take over as interim coach in Hartford following Knoblauch’s departure, per a league supply.
• Woodcroft took over for Dave Tippett in February of 2022 and led the Oilers to a 79-41-13 report. It is the fifth-best teaching report within the NHL over that point.
• Oilers star Connor McDavid has solely 10 factors this season, an 80-point tempo, which might be the bottom output of his profession apart from his injury-shortened rookie marketing campaign in 2015-16. He instructed the media this week his confidence is “not very high.”

Why Edmonton made this transfer

Woodcroft’s techniques modifications within the impartial and defensive zones didn’t take effectively sufficient or shortly sufficient. The Oilers had been leaking rush possibilities and their goaltenders had a troublesome time stopping them. The hope was that these tweaks would repay in the long term and make the Oilers a greater defensive staff when it mattered — within the playoffs. Instead, the Oilers have dug themselves in an enormous gap that is perhaps too deep to overcome.

No one might have seen this start taking place. Systems modifications are an element, for positive. The largest purpose Woodcroft is out as coach is a league-worst staff save share and the second-worst staff capturing share at five-on-five. It’s robust to win like that. — Daniel Nugent-Bowman, Oilers beat author

What Knoblauch brings to Oilers

Knoblauch coached McDavid for 3 years with the OHL’s Erie Otters and has been thought-about an up-and-coming identify to watch in NHL circles. He turns into the fifth coach to lead the Oilers throughout Edmonton’s McDavid/Leon Draisaitl Era, following Woodcroft, Tippett, Ken Hitchcock and Todd McLellan.

Knoblauch most lately labored because the coach of the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack, spending elements of 5 seasons there, and had a two-year run as an assistant on Dave Hakstol’s workers with the Philadelphia Flyers earlier than that. His resume additionally features a extremely profitable teaching profession in junior hockey, successful an OHL title with Erie in 2017 and a WHL title with Kootenay in 2011. A seventh-round draft choose of the New York Islanders in 1997, Knoblauch’s enjoying profession included 5 years with the University of Alberta Golden Bears in Edmonton. — Chris Johnston, senior NHL author

Will GM Ken Holland stick with Oilers?

Ken Holland stays the overall supervisor. Sunday’s strikes principally signify that he has that title in identify solely. Knoblauch was seen as a rising star within the teaching ranks when he was McDavid’s bench boss in junior with OHL Erie however has by no means actually been a severe candidate for an NHL teaching job. Paul Coffey has by no means stood behind a bench in professional hockey and has by no means expressed any curiosity in doing so. He’ll be proprietor Daryl Katz’s eyes and ears.

It’s arduous to envision a state of affairs the place Holland makes these strikes if he had each palms on the wheel. These choices have CEO of hockey operations Jeff Jackson’s fingerprints throughout them. Sunday signifies a transparent transition of energy as Holland winds down the ultimate months of his contract. — Nugent-Bowman

Required studying

(Photo: Sergei Belski / USA Today)