It pains me to say it, but Woodcroft can still a good coach in this league. I think he needs to show some more composure and maybe treat the refs a little different at his next gig. He is still an excellent communicator and McDavid definitely thought he was a smart coach.
Strangely, Woody might work in Toronto. He likes to ride his superstars and the media would probably buy whatever he's selling. They could end up liking the 11-7. I said before though that I think Toronto needs a more composed coach like Knoblauch, not another screamer like Keefe.
I don't really know what Woodcroft necessarily is as a coach yet. I think you can kind of break down his tenure here in a few chunks:
2022 Regular Season & Playoffs - very little to complain about, turned the season around and had immediate success
October 2022 - January 2023 - pretty bad start to the year combined with uneven play. Old Oiler habits showing themselves again
February 2023 - April 2023 - outstanding, feeling like we finally might be over the hump
Playoffs 2023 - See January - April 2023. Bad habits back in our game, and some frankly terrible coaching decisions with matchups and deployment in the Vegas series that hurt us.
October 2023 - downward continuation of Playoffs 2023
It's almost an even split of good and bad. The theme when I look at this is the team was more or less only hot when something occurred to give them a boost. Coaching change in 2022; acquisition of Ekholm in 2023. When we were in a state of relative normality, or if he had to make tough decisions in the playoffs, we underperformed. If we were in a situation where we had time to game plan and adjust we underperformed. If I'm a team looking to make a hire I don't know if I can really rely on his time in Edmonton to make a proper judgement.
Knoblauch hasn't been here long enough to know if this will occur with him as well, but I feel like Woodcroft's tenure was a lot more bad than good when you examine his record after the 2022 "new coach bump."