[News] Jets hire Flames scouting director Todd Woodcroft as assistant coach

[sureLoss]

Ken Wiebe @WiebeSunSports
#NHLJets announce they've added Todd Woodcroft as an assistant coach - likely to take on role of the eye in the sky

The Winnipeg Jets announced that Todd Woodcroft will join the club as an assistant coach under head coach Paul Maurice. He joins assistant coaches Charlie Huddy and Jamie Kompon, goaltender coach Wade Flaherty and video coach Matt Prefontaine on the Jets’ coaching staff.

Woodcroft, 43, has coaching experience in both the NHL and international hockey. He was a video coach with the Minnesota Wild from 2000-05 and with the Washington Capitals for the 2005-06 season. He was a video coach with Canada at the 2004 IIHF World Championship and helped the team to a gold medal win. Woodcroft has been an assistant coach with Belarus at three world championships in 2006, 2014 and 2016. He was an assistant coach with Switzerland at the 2015 world championship and will help Team Sweden at the 2016 World Cup of Hockey as a special assignment coach.

Woodcroft, who hails from Toronto, joins the Jets’ organization after spending the last three seasons with the Calgary Flames as the team’s scouting director and professional scout. Woodcroft has an extensive scouting background, spending four seasons with the Los Angeles Kings from 2009-13 as European scout, winning the Stanley Cup in 2012. Prior to his time with the Kings, Woodcroft also scouted for the Capitals and Wild and was the assistant general manager and director of player personnel for Dinamo Minsk in the KHL in 2008-09.

Woodcroft was one of the last hires by the Feaster/Weisbrod regime before Burke came in.

He was brought into help bridge the Flames European and North American scouting departments and assist Tod Button in 2013.

My understanding is that he was a key part in getting some of the European UFAs like Ryubkov, Pribyl, Rittich, Nakladal etc to sign with the Flames. Also was one of the first in the organization to identify Falkovsky. Believe he was also the one who made the Flames initial pitch to Panarin.

[Chingas]

^ This all sounds like a loss for us.

[Homeslice]

Good hockey people always trend upwards, so good for him if this is a better role in his career moving forward.

I wonder how much it took to scalp him away from the Flames and whether Treliving has someone else in mind to cover the loss?

[FanIn80]

I saw "Scouting Director Todd..." and was a gigantic pile of relieved when I expanded the window and saw it wasn't Todd Button.


Edit: Which doesn't really make any sense, since Todd Button is actually Tod Button, but still... losing him would have sucked a lot more than the Todd we lost.

[MarkGio]

Good for him. It must be a tough life being a scout, especially overseas.

[activeStick]

Most indications point to the Flames doing well in the scouting department since his been part of the team so this seems like a tough loss for the Flames.

[MrMastodonFarm]

Almost three years to the day the Flames grabbed him from the Kings. Here was a blurb about him and his role when hired by Feaster.

Todd Woodcroft has been hired in the newly created role of Scouting Director. In this role, Todd will assist Director of Amateur Scouting Tod Button and Assistant General Manager of Player Personnel John Weisbrod. Todd most recently scouted in Europe for the LA Kings. Todd will be based out of Minnesota, and will report directly to John Weisbrod.

Who knows how that role evolved or changed under new management though.