Mike Babcock is back. After seven years away from the NHL, the 63-year-old is returning to the bench as the new head coach of the Edmonton Oilers and he wants everyone to know the players are on board.
But his introductory press conference at Rogers Place raised quite a few eyebrows. Babcock was confident, self-assured and at times defensive. He deflected questions about his past, credited his wife for his exit from Columbus, and insisted more than once that the people around him are “comfortable.”
Babcock came into the presser knowing he’d have to address the elephant in the room. And that’s his history of making players uncomfortable, from Detroit to Toronto to Columbus. His answer, essentially, was that this time is different because the players said so.
He described sitting down with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman before accepting the job, walking them through exactly what his coaching style would look like and what changes he’d demand. By his account, they were all in. He then pointed to that buy-in as proof the concerns don’t apply here: “Obviously, they’re comfortable, or I wouldn’t be here. I thought that was important to have that happen. So a week in, they can’t be suddenly uncomfortable. We went through that whole process to make sure we’re moving ahead here.”
What McDavid and Co. told him
Babcock was clearly energized by his meetings with Edmonton’s core. He described the conversations with the team’s star players as a turning point in his decision.
He said the stars made their expectations plain from the jump. “They’ve told me, ‘We have to be better, and we expect you to make us better,'” he said. And Babcock made his own expectations just as clear, telling the room he laid out in detail what would need to change for the Oilers to win when it counts: “The interaction with star players who want nothing more than to win and tell you how they’re willing to change and adjust to make that happen is pretty exciting for a coach.”
He also left no doubt about the terms under which he took the job. “Unless you’re 100 percent all-in on Mike Babcock,” he told reporters, “I have no interest in coming in and being the coach.”
Babcock attributes Columbus exit to a phone call from his wife
The trickiest part of the press conference came when reporters pressed Babcock on the Columbus Blue Jackets where he was hired in 2023, accused of invading players’ privacy and had to resign right after.
Babcock’s answer was notable for what it didn’t include. Well, any real acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Instead, he pointed to internal staff discord and ultimately, a phone call from his wife as the reason he walked away. “It was very evident before the year started that I hadn’t benched 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,” he said. “Right from the get-go, my wife gave me a call, and she said, ‘It’s time to get out of there.’ I had been retired, was pretty good at it, and I got back to being retired.”
When followed up and asked directly whether he mishandled the situation in Columbus, Babcock’s answer was a flat no with a caveat. “No. To be honest with you, anytime 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. “The situation in Columbus has been reviewed, and I’m thankful to the NHL and NHLPA for doing that. It didn’t work out for us there, but we’re excited about making it work here.”
TSN insider Jay Onrait noted that nobody should have expected anything different. After watching the presser, he put it plainly: “It was fascinating. If anybody out there was expecting a Mike Babcock apology tour on his way back to NHL coaching, that was not the case.”
Mike Babcock claims he’s changed
Babcock spent some time trying to thread the needle between defending his track record and acknowledging that the game and the way coaches need to operate has evolved. He used the Olympics as a metaphor, pointing to the gap between his 2010 gold medal team in Vancouver and the group that fell short in Sochi four years later as proof that even winning systems have a shelf life.
“A lot of things have changed since I talked about 2002. It’s 2026 today. The league’s changed, the players have changed, and you have to change and grow as a coach,” he said. “I know from experience that what won at the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 couldn’t win in Sochi 2014. You have to adjust, you have to get better, you have to change, and that’s the process that starts here tomorrow.”
When asked what he’s specifically done since leaving Toronto in 2019 to prepare himself, Babcock kept it vague, leaning on family conversations and self-reflection rather than any formal process. “I think the big thing is just about trying to improve yourself and get better. I’m really fortunate that I have three adult children. We talk daily about how you improve and what you do to get better,” he said.
Oilers are betting he’s right
GM Stan Bowman made it clear the organization went into this with open eyes. He acknowledged the skepticism around the hire and laid out the standard Babcock is expected to meet. “There’s nothing wrong with holding players accountable for their performance but also doing it in a way that’s respectful, and that’s what we expect here,” Bowman said. “I need to trust Mike that he’s going to operate that way, and he needs to trust me that we’re going to do the same thing with everyone that we interact with.”
The Oilers went to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2024 and 2025 before getting bounced in the first round this spring by the Anaheim Ducks. The pressure to win, and win now, is as intense as it gets.
Babcock says the players are comfortable. The organization says it trusts him. Whether that trust holds when the hard conversations actually start will be the real story of this season.
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