Jay Woodcroft has been officially signed as the 17th coach in the Oilers NHL history. Woodcroft posted a 105-71-21 with the Oilers AHL affiliate, the Condors before coming in as the Oilers interim head coach after Dave Tippett was fired.

Under Woodcroft, the Oilers went 26-9-3 and made it to the Western Conference Finals. The team as a whole saw a huge boost in their 5 on 5 play, both in scoring and preventing goals against.

Woodcroft has been signed on a 3 year deal worth 2 million a season.

No word yet on whether or not the assistant coaches will be back behind the bench but chances seem very good that at the very least, defensive coach Dave Manson will return behind the bench as well. I would say things are potentially murkier for Glen Gulutzan who was responsible for the special teams. Nothing against Gulutzan but I could see Woodcroft casting a net out to choose someone himself.

This is great news for the Oilers organization. While other teams are recycling the same 10-15 head coaches that make their rounds every couple of seasons, the Oilers have developed their own head coach within the organization who so far has brought a fresh perspective to this locker room. No one is going to love every decision a coach makes (in particular there were things in the playoffs I disagreed with) but ultimately Woodcroft appears to have the right message for this team.

I for one cannot wait to see what Jay can do with a full training camp and pre-season to outline his systems as opposed to being thrown into the fire. Under the latter he performed admirably but I think this team can be even better with him behind the bench at the start.

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