TSP ORIGINAL · NHL OPINION
On June 23, the Oilers named Mike Babcock the 19th head coach in franchise history and the sixth of the Connor McDavid era. He is 63. He hasn’t finished a full NHL season behind a bench since 2018-19. The league had to clear the hire after the NHLPA asked for a review of Columbus. Bowman did it anyway — and the captain wanted it.
“We brought Babs in to be hard on me. And Leon.” Connor McDavid, to Sportsnet’s Mark Spector, adding that the top guys are the ones the finger should point at.
That’s not a player accepting a hire. That’s a player ordering one.
What Babcock has actually been doing
The résumé is real: 700-418-183 over 17 seasons, a Cup in Detroit, Olympic gold in 2010 and 2014, a Worlds and a World Cup. Nobody else in hockey has that set. His last five coaching seasons tell another story. Toronto went 29-42-11, then 40-27-15, then 49-26-7 for a then-franchise-record 105 points, then 46-28-8 — three straight first-round exits, two of them Game 7s against Boston. He was fired 23 games into 2019-20 at 9-10-4. Leafs record: 173-133-45, zero series wins.
Then the wilderness. Volunteer adviser at Vermont. One season back home at the University of Saskatchewan. A retirement announcement in 2022. Columbus hired him July 1, 2023 and he resigned September 17 — before coaching a game — after reports he’d asked players to show him photos on their phones. His last playoff series win came in 2013.
The style, and whether it’s changed
Systems and accountability. Structure first, matchups managed hard, ice time as currency. It won with a Detroit room full of adults. It also produced Marner ranking teammates by work ethic, Kadri’s memoir describing gym-effort grades read out in front of the group, and Johan Franzen calling him the worst person he’d ever met.
At his introductory press conference he made the case that he’s moved: “It’s 2026 today. The leagues changed, the players have changed” — noting what won in Vancouver in 2010 wouldn’t have won in Sochi. He also said “everybody on that team must be important,” right down to the guys who don’t dress.
He was less convincing on Columbus. Pressed by TSN’s Ryan Rishaug, he insisted he never crossed a line and offered: “My wife gave me a call, and she said it’s time” to leave. Jason Gregor asked him, on the record, how a coach is hard on players without being a jerk. Nobody left satisfied.
He brought D.J. Smith with him as associate coach — a former assistant who calls himself player-first. That’s not an accident. That’s a buffer.
Five years of Oilers hockey
| Season | Record | How it ended |
|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 49-27-6 | Tippett fired in February; Woodcroft goes 26-9-3. Conference final, swept by Colorado. |
| 2022-23 | 50-23-9 | Best power play in league history at 32.4%. Out in six to Vegas. |
| 2023-24 | 49-27-6 | 3-9-1 start, Woodcroft fired. Knoblauch digs them out to Game 7 of the Final. |
| 2024-25 | 48-29-5 | Back to the Final. Beaten in six. |
| 2025-26 | 41-30-11 | Skinner traded for Jarry; McDavid’s ankle fractured in Game 2. Out in six to Anaheim on an .880 team save percentage, worst in the playoffs. |
Knoblauch was fired May 14, two Finals and a fresh extension notwithstanding. Edmonton asked Vegas about Bruce Cassidy and was refused. Then they got Babcock.
Six voices in twelve seasons. At some point the constant stops being the coach.
The take
Continuity is the problem, not the solution. McDavid, Draisaitl, Nugent-Hopkins, Bouchard, Hyman — together long enough to have an identity, and the identity that shows up in April is a team that outscores everyone until it can’t. Continuity was supposed to be the edge. It’s the alibi.
They don’t develop. Blue-chip picks don’t count — first, first, third, tenth overall. Development is the back half of round one and later. Edmonton’s honest list: Stuart Skinner at 78th in 2017, now a Penguin. Broberg and Holloway were let go on offer sheets in 2024 and got better in St. Louis. Ryan McLeod became a scorer in Buffalo. That’s not scouting. That’s patience.
And players don’t come here. Not at market rate. The last two summers gave you Jeff Skinner, Arvidsson and Mangiapane. This July gave you Ryan Shea, Frederik Andersen and Devon Levi, plus Nurse’s $9.25 million shipped to San Jose. Competent, not transformative.
Can’t draft it, can’t develop it, can’t sign it. One lever left: squeeze the room. That’s what a hard coach is for, and it’s a last-ditch play.
It probably works for a while. Draisaitl says the leadership group went at Babcock hard in that meeting — “We asked all of the hard questions that media would probably ask him” — and came out convinced. He’s since framed it as the group wanting to be coached: “we’re looking to be coached. We’re looking to get better.” The depth guys sound the same. Vasily Podkolzin, off a 19-goal year, joked about the phone business — “I intentionally left it in the locker room” — then said plainly that Babcock may be tough at times, and that’s what this team needs.
And the risk is enormous. This group’s history is that it quits. Tippett lost them. Woodcroft lost them in thirteen games. Knoblauch went to two Finals and by last spring McDavid was praising Jon Cooper after a loss. When it goes wrong here it doesn’t fray, it collapses — and Babcock’s documented flaw is the exact thing that accelerates a room turning.
The counter-example is Tortorella, who reeled it in and kept the buy-in without gutting who he was. Hiring Smith says Babcock knows it.
Here’s the stake. Babcock has 700 wins, a Cup and two golds — and a reputation bad enough the league had to approve him working. Win here and it all becomes redemption, and the Hall becomes automatic. Lose the room by Christmas and he’s the sixth guy Edmonton chewed through, and the last one anybody hires.
June is easy. McDavid said so himself. September is the bill.