Craig Woodcroft

Craig Woodcroft (born December 3, 1969 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian professional ice hockey head coach and former forward . He is currently head coach of HC Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL).

Craig Woodcroft
Craig Woodcroft in 2017
Born (1969-12-03) December 3, 1969
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Height 5 ft 11 in (180 cm)
Weight 187 lb (85 kg; 13 st 5 lb)
Position Forward
Shot Left
Played for Indianapolis Ice
Prince Edward Island Senators
TuTo Hockey
Cleveland Lumberjacks
Cornwall Aces
Manchester Storm
Kölner Haie
Kassel Huskies
Frankfurt Lions
Essen Mosquitoes
HC Milano
Linköpings HC
National team  Canada
NHL Draft 134th overall, 1988
Chicago Blackhawks
Playing career 1991–2003

During his playing career, he represented Team Canada internationally and spent nine years playing in Europe. He previously coached Adler Mannheim of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL) and Genève-Servette HC of the National League (NL). His brothers Jay and Todd[1] have worked for NHL teams as scout and assistant coach.[2]

Playing career

Woodcroft amassed 168 points (73 goals, 95 assists) over his four-year NCAA career at Colgate University. Woodcroft was presented with the Colgate Coaches Award in 1989 and hauled in ECACH Tournament MVP distinction the following year, helping the Raiders capture the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference championship.[3] As a senior, he was named Colgate's Best Offensive Player and earned All-ECACH Honorable Mention status.[4]

A 1991 graduate of Colgate University, Woodcroft was picked by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 1988 NHL Draft (134th overall). Following playing college hockey, he turned pro and signed with the Indianapolis Ice of the International Hockey League, where he stayed from 1991 to 1993, followed by a stint with the Prince Edward Island Senators of the American Hockey League in 1993-94.

Woodcroft made 12 appearances for Finnish Liiga side TuTo Hockey in 1994-95 and then was sent to lower division team Reipas Lahti on loan, where he saw the ice in three contests, before heading back to North America. He finished the season playing a couple of games for IHL's Cleveland Lumberjacks and strengthening ECHL outfit Columbus Chill in 19 games.

At the beginning of the 1995-96 campaign, Woodcroft took up an offer to play in Germany: Woodcroft parted ways with Deggendorfer EC after two games, but remained in the country to join fellow German second-division team EV Weiden. At Weiden, he produced 13 goals and 22 assists in 28 contests.

After playing briefly for AHL's Cornwall Aces and Colonial Hockey League's Quad City Mallards, Woodcroft embarked on a two-year stint with Manchester Storm of the British Ice Hockey Superleague (BISL). In England, Woodcroft is particularly remembered for a four-goal showing in a 7-0 European Hockey League home win over Czech powerhouse Sparta Praha in the 1997-98 season.[5] He garnered All-BISL First Team honors in his second year with the Storm. That drew the interest of a high caliber team from Germany's top-tier Deutsche Eishockey Liga (DEL), Kölner Haie. He signed with the team for the 1998-99 season, followed by stints with three other DEL teams in the following three years, including the Kassel Huskies, Frankfurt Lions and Moskitos Essen.

Woodcroft concluded his professional career playing in Italy (HC Milan)[6] and Sweden (Linköping HC) in 2002-03.

Coaching career

Woodcroft is the founder of the Northern Edge Hockey Academy.[7] In 2010-11, he served as president of Hockey Operations for the Sioux City Musketeers of the United States Hockey League.[8]

Woodcroft served as Skill Development Coach for the St. Louis Blues from 2010 to 2012 and was director of the Nashville Predators' Rookie Development Camp between 2012 and 2014.[9]

In 2014, Woodcroft signed a two-year deal as associate coach of German DEL side Adler Mannheim.[10] In his first year, serving under head coach Geoff Ward, Woodcroft helped guide the Adler squad to the German championship title. In February 2016, he was promoted to Adler Mannheim head coach after Greg Ireland was fired.[11] Woodcroft left Mannheim after the 2015-16 season and was named head coach of HC Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) in April 2016.[12]

On June 26, 2017, it was announced that Woodcroft would become the new head coach of Genève-Servette HC, signing a three-year deal with the team.[13] On July 25, 2017 he was named an assistant coach of Canada's men's team for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, Korea.[14] Serving as assistant coach to Willie Desjardins, Woodcroft helped Canada win the 2017 Spengler Cup.[15] He guided Genève-Servette to an 8th place finish in the 2017-18 regular season before falling short to defending champion SC Bern in playoff-quarterfinals. Woodcroft was relieved of his duties as Genève-Servette head coach on April 3, 2018.[16] In July 2019, he again signed with HC Dinamo Minsk to begin a second stint as head coach at the club.[17]

Career statistics
Regular season Playoffs
Season Team League GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM
1987–88 Colgate University NCAA 297101728 —————
1988–89 Colgate University NCAA 2920294962 —————
1989–90 Colgate University NCAA 37202646108 —————
1990–91 Colgate University NCAA 3226305652 —————
1991–92 Indianapolis Ice IHL 7521173867 —————
1992–93 Indianapolis Ice IHL 6512193180 —————
1993–94 Prince Edward Island Senators AHL 33591441 —————
1994–95 TUTO Hockey Liiga 120006 —————
1994–95 Reipas Lahti I-Divisioona 32024 —————
1994–95 Cleveland Lumberjacks IHL 20000 —————
1994–95 Columbus Chill ECHL 167142122 331412
1995–96 Deggendorfer EC Germany2 42356 —————
1995–96 EV Weiden Germany2 2813223550 —————
1995–96 Cornwall Aces AHL 30006 —————
1995–96 Quad City Mallards CoHL 41346 414510
1996–97 Manchester Storm BISL 4117223968 61232
1997–98 Manchester Storm BISL 4217314879 945914
1998–99 Kölner Haie DEL 499112083 504410
1999–00 Kassel Huskies DEL 4911304160 806614
2000–01 Frankfurt Lions DEL 587273493 —————
2001–02 Moskitos Essen DEL 588192787 —————
2002–03 Milano Vipers Italy 248142242 —————
2002–03 Linköping HC SHL 1101128 10551037
IHL totals 142 33 36 69 147 — — — — —
DEL totals 214 35 87 122 323 13 0 10 10 24

References
  1. "Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada". www.cbc.ca. Retrieved 2017-06-02.
  2. "Oilers assistant Jay Woodcroft joins World Cup coaching detail". Edmonton Journal. 2015-11-14. Retrieved 2017-06-02.
  3. "ECAC HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS" (PDF). static.psbin.com. Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  4. "COLGATE ATHLETIC HISTORY" (PDF). gocolgateraiders.com. Colgate University Athletics. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  5. "Storm Stars - Craig Woodcroft". www.inthecrease.co.uk. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  6. "Milanosiamonoi - il sito". www.milanosiamonoi.com. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  7. "Hockey School Comes to Rochester". WNY Hockey Report. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  8. "Strand out as Musketeers Head Coach". Retrieved 2017-06-02.
  9. Stefan, Diepold. "Craig Woodcroft". www.eishockey-online.com. Archived from the original on 2016-02-20. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  10. "Associate Coach Craig Woodcroft | Facebook". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  11. "ADLER Mannheim". www.adler-mannheim.de. Archived from the original on 2016-02-23. Retrieved 2016-02-19.
  12. "Craig Woodcroft appointed head coach of HC Dinamo Minsk". eng.belta.by. 2016-04-28. Retrieved 2016-04-29.
  13. "It is Craig Woodcroft after all - GSHC signs new head coach". www.eishockey-online.com. Retrieved 2017-06-26.
  14. Wharnsby, Tim (July 25, 2017). "Canadian men's Olympic hockey management team offers no surprises". CBC Sports. Retrieved July 25, 2017.
  15. "Rosters". www.hockeycanada.ca. Retrieved 2017-12-31.
  16. Club, www.gshc.ch, GSHC - Site officiel du Genève-Servette Hockey. "Retour de Chris McSorley comme Head Coach du GSHC - Genève-Servette Hockey Club". www.gshc.ch (in French). Retrieved 2018-04-03.
  17. Beaud, Grégory (2019-07-24). "Craig Woodcroft à Minsk; la bonne affaire?". Le Matin (in French). ISSN 1018-3736. Retrieved 2020-04-21.
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