Monday LNN: Woodcroft Out, Zadorov Rumours, Čechmánek Passes Away, and more

Links, news, and notes on this Remembrance Day weekend:

• Jay Woodcroft is out as the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers after their 3-9-1 start to the season. It's interesting that they fired him after a solid 4-1 win against the Seattle Kraken, but I guess the organization had been thinking about this for a while. Woodcroft has the best winning percentage in Oilers history with a .643 points percentage and a 79-41-13 record in 133 games. He only had one full season with the Oilers and almost certainly got something of a raw deal after his skaters tallied 11.41 goals below expected and his goalies allowed 23.42 goals above expected, which is a combined whopping 34.83 goals in the unlucky direction. Kris Knoblauch, Connor McDavid's former coach in Erie, takes over as head coach, and he will almost surely turn the team around just because there is no way their luck will continue to be this bad.
• Former NHL goaltender Roman Čechmánek has passed away at the age of 52, with no details released just yet. Čechmánek was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers in 2000 as a 29-year-old when you were still allowed to draft someone that old. He only spent three seasons in Philadelphia and one in Los Angeles, but he compiled a fantastic .919 SV% in 212 games. He shared the William M. Jennings Trophy with Martin Brodeur and Robert Esche in 2002-03 and had one All-Star appearance. In an era with another dominant Czech goalie, Dominik Hasek, Čechmánek probably did not get enough recognition. RIP to Roman.
• According to Kevin Weekes (and Zadorov's own agent), Nikita Zadorov (pending UFA) has asked for a trade to leave the Calgary Flames. The 28-year-old lefty would have lots of value on the trade market, with Toronto, Edmonton, and Vancouver being named as potential landing spots according to Elliotte Friedman. As always, cap space will be an issue with those teams, as Zadorov is making $3.75M.
• In what should be an interesting little series, Mortiz Seider will be blogging about the Global Series during his time there. His first entry comes after Detroit's win on Saturday before flying to Stockholm.
• With Connor Bedard's two goals on Sunday, he's up to 9 goals and 4 assists in 13 games, which puts him on a 57-goal pace for the season. The most goals scored by a U19 player in the NHL ever is by Dale Hawerchuk at 45, so Bedard's in fantastic company.
• Logan Thompson apparently wanted to decorate his mask with a cancer ribbon in honour of Hockey Fights Cancer Month, but the NHL said no. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is a league that has completely lost the plot. I sincerely hope Thompson or somebody else does it anyway just like Travis Dermott did with the pride tape. Impossible to fathom a reason for a rule that gets applied in this way.
• The Hockey Hall of Fame will officialy induct five more players and two builders on Monday,with the festivities getting underway this past weekend The players include Pierre Turgeon, Henrik Lundqvist, Tom Barrasso, Caroline Ouellette, and Mike Vernon, and the builders are Ken Hitchcock and Pierre Lacroix. It would be nice to see more women get inducted especially considering the backlog they're deadling with. Regardless, congratulations to all of them!
• A month into the season, the writers at The Athletic have revised their predictions for the rest of the season. Unsurprisingly, they're more bearish on the Senators due to their start, but it's interesting looking at what other opinions about players and teams have changed in such a short period of time.