Pump the brakes on Jay Woodcroft in Toronto.
The former Edmonton Oilers bench boss is not interviewing for the Toronto Maple Leafs’ head coaching position, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported on Friday’s 32 Thoughts Podcast.
“I understand there were reports earlier this week that he was going to interview in Toronto. I don’t believe that’s the case,” Friedman said. “I do not believe Toronto has asked permission to talk to him, and I think it’s quite possible that Toronto doesn’t ask permission to talk to him.”
Friedman also added that Woodcroft is a “legit contender” for the Los Angeles Kings coaching position after interviewing there.
Reports circulated earlier this week that Woodcroft was to interview with Maple Leafs’ brass and was considered a front-runner for the role.
Woodcroft, a Toronto native, spent two-plus seasons in Edmonton before he was fired 13 games into the 2023-24 campaign. He had a 79-41-13 record in that span and won three playoff series.
Woodcroft was an assistant on Joel Quenneville’s Anaheim Ducks staff this season, helping guide the young team to the second round of the playoffs, which included a first-round victory over the Oilers.
The Maple Leafs fired Craig Berube earlier this month after failing to make the playoffs for the first time in nine years.
NHL sends memo to teams on pending UFAs
The NHL is setting a firm red line on tampering.
Friedman reported Friday that the league sent out a memo to all 32 teams reminding them that allowing a pending free agent to speak with other teams before the opening of free agency is not permitted.
The memo stems from a situation with the Chicago Blackhawks and pending UFA Ilya Mikheyev. According to Friedman, the Blackhawks made Mikheyev’s negotiating rights up for trade and allowed the 31-year-old to speak with potential teams to gauge what his next contract could potentially look like.
“(The Blackhawks) made him available for trade and one of the things that was part of that conversation was that Chicago was kind of looking at it like, ‘OK, well, if he goes out there and he doesn’t find a match, or he doesn’t find what he likes, maybe he’ll circle back and we’ll be able to find our own common ground,'” Friedman reported. “‘Check your market value and return if you don’t like what you hear out there.’
“The league sent a memo out basically saying that is not allowed.”
The NHL used to have a designated negotiating window before the opening of free agency — from June 25 to July 1 — but that is no longer league policy.
Friedman added that he believed, despite the memo, that the NHL wants to bring back the UFA negotiating window, but the players’ association is against it.
“Basically, the way it works … (is) you’re allowed to make a trade. If you want to make the deal and give someone else a player’s negotiating rights, you can go out and you can do that,” Friedman explained. “But you can’t allow a player to talk to other teams. Permission for a UFA to talk to other teams is a no-no. What (the NHL) did as part of this is remind everybody about tampering fines.”
The fine for tampering is up to $5 million and/or the forfeiture of draft picks.