Jay Woodcroft is finally landing on his feet.
After being snubbed from multiple head coaching jobs over the last two cycles, the former Edmonton Oilers head coach is set to join the Anaheim Ducks coaching staff.
Woodcroft had interviewed for the head coaching job with the Ducks in May, but was eventually passed over as the team hired Joel Quenneville — But now, according to Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli, Woodcroft will join the team as an assistant coach.
Sources say former #Oilers head coach Jay Woodcroft will be joining Joel Quenneville's staff as an assistant with #NHLDucks.
Likely to be announced July 1 after Woodcroft's current deal in Edmonton expires.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 26, 2025
It will mark Woodcroft’s first NHL coaching job since being fired as the Oilers head coach 13 games into the 2023-24 season after the team sputtered to a 3-9-1 record out of the gate. Woodcroft had joined the Oilers organization in 2015-16 as an assistant coach on Todd McLellan’s staff, and when McLellan was shown the door partway through the 2017-18 season, Woodcroft remained with the team, taking the reins as the head coach of the AHL’s Bakersfield Condors in 2018-19.
He held the role for three full seasons before replacing Dave Tippett as the Oilers head coach in February 2022. Woodcroft coached the Oilers to a 79-41-13 record and a .643 points percentage behind the Oilers bench — the second-highest points percentage of any Oilers head coach behind Kris Knoblauch, who replaced him.
Woodcroft worked as an assistant coach with Canada’s World Championship team in 2024, but spent time travelling the world, visiting different coaching staffs to stay sharp.
“I got some great advice from some mentors around the league that I’ve worked with and some that I didn’t work with, and they said, ‘You’ve been doing this for 20 or so years straight going 100 miles an hour. It’s okay to take a deep breath and spend some quality family time,’” said Woodcroft at the time. “That’s something I really dug into.“Right around the month of January when the calendar flipped, I was eager to flex some hockey muscles and eager to be around the game a little bit more. I spent the month of February over in Europe and was able to be around two quality organizations in two different countries. I was welcomed in by two different coaching staffs at two different points in their year. I picked up a few things here and there, and I’m certainly going to bring some of it in to my next opportunity wherever and whenever that might be.”
As Seravalli reported, Woodcroft’s hire isn’t expected to be made official until after July 1st, when his contract with the Oilers expires.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.
