John Tortorella comments on taking Jay Woodcroft under his wing

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Liam McCormick
September 21, 2024 (4:10 PM)

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Former Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft is unfortunately out of a job for the upcoming NHL season, but a legendary coach has taken him under his wing.

Flyers coach John Tortorella has allowed Jay Woodcroft to attend Flyers training camp to observe and learn from Tort's coaching. Earlier today, Tortorella commented on his relationship with Woodcroft.

»He contacted me . . . He spent a few minutes with us after practice yesterday. It's a coach trying to get better. I think in the coaching fraternity - I used to do it as a young coach myself, just reach out and try to see if I could just view a practice and sit down and talk a little bit. So, I think that's just a young man that has no job right now, trying to use his time correctly to try to be better. So I'm all in on that.»
- John Tortorella on Jay Woodcroft

It's cool to see Tortorella, a coach famous for his temper and intensity, welcome in a coaching brother into training camp and earnestly try to teach him something. Tortorella has routinely been able to get great results out of subpar rosters and is a Cup Champion himself, so Woodcroft is smart to seek his knowledge.

Jay Woodcroft made his pro coaching debut with the Edmonton Oilers after taking over for Dave Tippett in the 2021-22 season. He coached the team to a good record of 79-41-13, but after the disastrous start to last season, needed to take the fall for the team's failure. It didn't look great on Woodcroft that Knoblauch was instantly able to turn the team around into a contender, but Jack Campbell's poor goaltending to start the year arguably cost Woodcroft his job. After a brutal loss in San Jose, Woodcroft knew he was about to be fired.

For his coaching style, Woodcroft could be described as a mix between elements of old-school hockey and analytics based decisions. It could be tough to get a job when teams usually want to commit to either direction, but Woodcroft will surely be back behind an NHL bench in time. Hopefully this endorsement from John Tortorella helps that process.