Mike Babcock told reporters on Tuesday that the Edmonton Oilers’ star players are all in on him taking the reins of the organization.
Babcock said at his introductory news conference that after Oilers’ general manager Stan Bowman contacted him regarding the team’s head coaching vacancy, Babcock met with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman to gauge their interest in having him potentially take over as head coach.
“Leon, Connor, and Zach Hyman, and the rest of this leadership want to get better. And that’s what they’ve asked of me. And they’ve told me, we have to be better, and we expect you to make us better. And I said, well, that’s great to talk about in June. When camp starts and you’re making a guy do things he might not be so happy. And they said no, that’s not how it’s going to be,” Babcock said.
“We’re all committed, all in on winning. And, obviously in that time period we had gone through enough things and talked about enough things that they felt comfortable enough with the process, or I wouldn’t be here. I was very clear to them unless you’re 100 per cent all in on Mike Babcock, I have no interest in being the coach.”
Babcock also emphasized buy-in from the entire roster, not just the core pieces.
“Everybody on that team has to be important. Even the guys that don’t play every night... We’re going to empower all of those players, and they’re going to love it. I think it’s harder on the big dogs.”
Babcock wasofficially hired by the Oilers earlier on Tuesdayas the 19th coach in club history, replacing Kris Knoblauch, who was fired at the end of the season.The move to hire Babcock came a few days after he was cleared in an NHL investigation requested by the NHL Players’ Association relating to his brief time with theColumbus Blue Jackets in 2023.The findings of that investigation allowed the 63-year-old to return to an NHL bench.
The players’ union called allegations of Babcock’s conduct with Columbus “concerning” in a statement last week but acknowledged the league’s decision to allow him to return to coaching.
TSN Hockey Insider Darren Dreger originally reported Edmonton’s interest in Babcock earlier this month.
Babcock was hired as the Blue Jackets’ head coach in July of 2023 but resigned before the season started after a report from the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast indicated he had asked players to share personal photos from their mobile devices.
The situation was investigated by the NHL Players’ Association before Babcock announced his resignation.
Babcock said Tuesday that a disconnect that formed early on in Columbus pushed him toward resigning.
“It was very evident before the year started. I hadn’t bench anybody, I hadn’t talked to anybody, I hadn’t sat anybody out. And it was evident that we weren’t together as a staff right from the get go. My wife gave me a call and she said ‘It’s time to get out of there.’ I’d been retired. I was pretty good at it, I got back to being retired.”
When asked if he felt he crossed the line, Babcock said he believes he did not, but he did do some self-reflection.
“No, to be honest with you, any time you make anybody feel uncomfortable in your life, you should take a look at yourself and you should say, ‘How could I do that better?’” he said.
Babcock owns a career regular-season head coaching record of 700-418-164 with 19 ties. He also coached Team Canada to Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014, as was at the helm for gold at the World Junior Championship (1997), Men’s World Championship (2004) and World Cup of Hockey (2016).
