The Edmonton Oilers have seen enough. Two trips to the Stanley Cup Final, two gut-punch losses in 2024 and 2025. Then last season they got bounced in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks and everyone inside the organization decided Kris Knoblauch was the problem. So they fired him.
The Oilers and general manager Stan Bowman wanted Bruce Cassidy. But the Vegas Golden Knights refused to let their division rival interview him. So Edmonton went to Plan B, and Plan B was Mike Babcock. The same Mike Babcock who hasn’t coached a game since 2023, when he was hired and then fired by the Columbus Blue Jackets before ever running a regular-season practice, because it came out that he asked players to send him photos from their personal phones.
The Oilers asked the NHL to look into that whole situation before they made this hire. The league gave Babcock a passing grade. So here we are.
The appeal of a hard-ass coach
Babcock brings toughness, discipline and structure. That part is real. Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were frustrated with the team’s inconsistency last season, and reportedly wanted a coach who wouldn’t let guys coast. Babcock won’t let anyone coast. He never has.
He coached 17 years in this league. Ten with Detroit, five with Toronto, two with Anaheim. He won the Stanley Cup in 2008 with the Red Wings and coached Canada to Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014. At his peak he was one of the most accomplished coaches in the game.
But that was a long time ago. Babcock hasn’t been behind an NHL bench in seven years. That’s not seven months. That’s seven years. The game has changed. It’s faster, more collaborative, less authoritarian. Babcock says he gets that now.
“You can’t coach the same way now that you did then,” Babcock said at his introductory press conference. “I met with Connor, Leon and Zach, and we were all on the same page. I wouldn’t be here if that wasn’t the case.”
That sounds good in July. It sounds different in January when the Oilers lose three in a row and Babcock starts doing what he’s always done. Pushing harder. Demanding more. Treating players like they’re replaceable parts in a machine that only works one way.
His former players in Detroit and Toronto didn’t appreciate how he treated them. Some called him a bully. He is demanding, difficult and borderline obsessive about details. When things go wrong he doesn’t soften. He doubles down.
Babcock says he’s evolved. But old habits are old for a reason. The man has been one of the most stubborn, single-minded coaches in the league for two decades. His style was normal in the 1960s and 1970s. It’s not normal anymore, and pretending otherwise doesn’t make it true.
The NHL coaching profession has changed. Players expect a cooperative relationship with their coach. Babcock’s approach is the opposite of cooperative. It’s my-way-or-the-highway, and the highway usually leads to a burned-out locker room by February.
The Oilers have the best player in the world. They have a window that won’t stay open forever. They needed someone who could hold players accountable without breaking them. Babcock can do the first part. The second part has never been his strength, and there’s no evidence that’s changed just because he said so at a podium.
This hire might work. It might not. But betting on a 63-year-old coach who hasn’t worked in seven years and whose last job ended in disgrace feels less like a calculated risk and more like a Hail Mary from a franchise that ran out of other options.
Leave a Comment