Craig Woodcroft

Craig Woodcroft
Date of birth	3rd December 1969
place of birth	Toronto , Ontario , Canada
size	180 cm
Weight	85 kg
position	Right wing
Shot hand	Left
Draft
NHL Entry Draft	1988 , 7th round, 134th position Chicago Blackhawks
Career stations
1987-1991	Colgate University
1991-1993	Indianapolis Ice
1993-1994	Prince Edward Island Senators
1994-1995	TuTo Hockey Reipas Lahti Cleveland Lumberjacks Columbus Chill
1995-1996	Deggendorfer SC 1st EV Weiden Cornwall Aces Quad City Mallards
1996-1998	Manchester Storm
1998-1999	Cologne Sharks
1999-2000	Kassel Huskies
2000-2001	Frankfurt Lions
2001-2002	Mosquitoes eat
2002-2003	HC Milano Vipers Linköpings HC

Craig Woodcroft (born December 3, 1969 in Toronto , Ontario ) is a former Canadian ice hockey player and current coach who has been the head coach of HK Dinamo Minsk from the KHL since June 2019 . During his active career from 1987 to 2003 he played for the Kölner Haie , Kassel Huskies , Frankfurt Lions and Moskitos Essen in the German Ice Hockey League .

Career

As a player

Craig Woodcroft began his career as a hockey player in the team at Colgate University , for which he was active parallel to his studies from 1987 to 1991 in the National Collegiate Athletic Association . During this period he was selected in the NHL Entry Draft in 1988 in the seventh round as a total of 134 players by the Chicago Blackhawks , for which he however never played, and won the championship of the college league ECAC Hockey with Colgate University in 1990 . During his time at Colgate University, he also completed five test matches for Team Canada . From 1991 to 1993 the winger played for the Indianapolis Ice in the International Hockey League . He then spent a season with the Prince Edward Island Senators , where he spent much of the 1993/94 season in Team Canada.

During the 1994/95 season, Woodcroft changed clubs several times. First he played in Finland for Reipas Lahti in the SM-liiga and TuTo Hockey in the second class I divisioona, before he played for the Columbus Chill in the East Coast Hockey League and the Cleveland Lumberjacks in the IHL. The following season was similarly turbulent for the Canadian. After he had stood on the ice for the German second division team Deggendorfer SC and 1. EV Weiden , he played in North America for the Cornwall Aces from the AHL and the Quad City Mallards from the Colonial Hockey League . From 1996 to 1998 the left shooter ran for Manchester Storm in the British Ice Hockey Superleague and the European Hockey League .

In Manchester, the former Canadian international was recommended for major European leagues and played for one year in the German Ice Hockey League from 1998 to 2002 for the Kölner Haie , Kassel Huskies , Frankfurt Lions and Moskitos Essen . He scored 35 goals and 97 assists in a total of 227 DEL appearances during this period. The Canadian last played in the 2002/03 season for HC Milano Vipers from the Italian A1 series and the Linköpings HC from the Swedish Elitserien . He then ended his career at the age of 33.

As a trainer

After the end of his career as an active player, Woodcroft devoted himself to his ice hockey academy ( Northern Edge Hockey ), which he had launched in 1993. Between 2010 and 2012 he worked in the area of ​​player development for the NHL club St. Louis Blues , and in the 2010/11 season he was also the sporting director of the Sioux City Musketeers from the United States Hockey League , and was also a co-owner of the team. He later led a camp for new professionals with the Nashville Predators .

For the 2014/2015 season he took over the position of assistant coach for Adler Mannheim in the German Ice Hockey League (DEL), where he won the German championship alongside Jay Leach and head coach Geoff Ward in his first year . In the following year he was initially still assistant coach under the newly signed Greg Ireland , before this dismissed in February 2016 and Woodcroft was then promoted to head coach until the end of the season. Under his leadership, Mannheim retired in the pre-playoffs.

In April 2016 he signed a contract as head coach at HK Dinamo Minsk from the KHL and took part in the 2016 Spengler Cup with Dinamo . Under Woodcrofts leadership Dinamo reached the best main round placement in the club's history (5th place in the Western Conference) and failed in the first round of the playoffs to Lokomotiv Yaroslavl . He then left the club from Belarus and became head coach at Genève-Servette HC from the Swiss National League . In December 2017, he contributed to winning the Spengler Cup in Davos as an assistant coach for the Canadian team . He led the Geneva team as eighth of the points round in the playoffs, where the team was eliminated in the first round against Bern. At the beginning of April 2018, Woodcroft was removed from office despite a contract that ran until 2019; his predecessor Chris McSorley  took over the office again. Woodcroft has been the head coach of HK Dinamo Minsk again since June 2019.

Achievements and Awards

• 1990 ECAC Hockey Championship with Colgate University
• 2015 German champion with Adler Mannheim (as assistant trainer)
• 2017 Spengler Cup win with Team Canada (as assistant coach)

Personal

His brothers Jay and Todd were assistant coaches and player scouts on the staff of several NHL clubs.

statistics

	Seasons	Games	Gates	Assists	Points	Penalty minutes
DEL main round	4th	214	35	87	122	323
DEL playoffs	2	13	0	10	10	24
Elitserien main round	1	11	0	1	1	28
Elitserien-Kval-series	1	10	5	5	10	37
SM liiga main round	1	12	0	0	0	6th
SM liiga playoffs	-	-	-	-	-	-

Web links

• Craig Woodcroft at hockeydb.com (English)
• Craig Woodcroft at eliteprospects.com (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://siouxcityjournal.com/sports/hockey/ushl-approves-musketeers-new-owners/article_a729b2f6-75bf-5def-a332-e6e8ddba39d0.html
2. ↑ http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/sports/2422056-college-hockey-ushl-team-interested-umd-assistant-coach-larson
3. ↑ https://www.mannheim24.de/sport/adler-mannheim/craig-woodcroft-leach-unterstuetzen-adler-headcoach-geoff-ward-3703562.html
4. ↑ eishockeynews.de, Mannheim brings the ex-professionals Craig Woodcroft and Jay Leach into the team ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
5. ↑ Craig Woodcroft leaves the Eagles. In: mannheim24.de. Retrieved April 30, 2016 . 
6. ↑ Craig Woodcroft appointed head coach of HC Dinamo Minsk. In: eng.belta.by. April 28, 2016, accessed April 29, 2016 . 
7. ↑ National League - Woodcroft confirmed as Geneva coach. In: srf.ch. June 26, 2017. Retrieved June 17, 2019 . 
8. ↑ https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/team-canada/men/national/2017-18/spengler-cup/stats/team-rosters?teamid=151#staff
9. ↑ https://www.aargauerzeitung.ch/sport/eishockey/berns-entscheidender-doppelschlag-im-letzt-drittel-lugano-dank-powerplay-ebenfalls-im-halbfinal-132344654
10. ↑ https://www.nzz.ch/sport/mcsorley-kehrt-zurueck-an-die-bande-es-ist-seine-auferstehung-ld.1371534
11. ↑ Крэйг Вудкрофт - главный, Михаил Грабовский - ассистент! In: hcdinamo.by. June 14, 2019, Retrieved June 17, 2019 (Russian). 
12. ↑ http://www.cbc.ca/sports-content/hockey/opinion/2014/01/the-woodcrofts-a-unique-hockey-day-in-canada-family.html
13. ↑ http://edmontonjournal.com/sports/hockey/nhl/edmonton-oilers/oilers-assistant-jay-woodcroft-joins-world-cup-coaching-detail