The Edmonton Oilers will be opening the 2026–27 season under Mike Babcock—the first time he has been behind an NHL bench for a regular season game since he was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in November 2019. This week, Connor McDavid opened up on what the expectations are from Babcock and what the team is hoping he brings to a group that has come close to a championship twice and come away empty both times.
Now Babcock has a well-documented history of conduct toward players that has followed him from Detroit to Toronto to Columbus, where he resigned in 2023 before coaching a single game. McDavid addressed that history directly this week, sharing exactly what the Oilers leadership group made clear to Babcock before agreeing to the hire.
Oilers leadership group told Babcock they would step in if needed
This week, in a sit down with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas, when McDavid was directly asked whether the players had raised the idea of stepping in if Babcock went too far with someone, the Oilers’ captain answered without hesitation.
“Babs is there to be Babs and to coach the way that he sees fit. We’re also a team and teammates who care about each other, ” he said. “And if there’s an area or a place where we have to step in, of course we’re going to do that. But we would do that with any coach. It doesn’t matter who it is.”
McDavid said this would apply to any coach, which may be true in principle, but this specific exchange needed to happened in the context of hiring Babcock.
Both sides pressed each other before the hire was agreed upon
McDavid described the sit-down with Babcock as something closer to a mutual interview between the coach and his star players, with neither side willing to simply sign off on the arrangement without getting what they needed from the other.
“I think both sides were hard on each other. We pressed him on some things and he pressed us on things. It was pretty clear that he was content with where his life was at, and he wanted to make sure that this is what we really wanted.”
“And we wanted to make sure that he wanted to come back and work and match the level of intensity that us players have. And obviously both sides felt that it was a good match,” he added.
McDavid names areas of his game he needs to be coached
Beyond the Babcock matter, McDavid was also unusually candid this week about his own game and what he believes he still needs from a coaching relationship.
“I want to be coached. I do. There are areas of the game that I have figured out, and they come naturally and easy to me. There are other areas of the game that I need some help with. And I need to be coached and we need to be organized. And I know Babs will do that,” he said.
Whether this was a pointed remark aimed at the previous coaching staff, is open for interpretation.
McDavid led the NHL with 138 points last season while his team was eliminated in six games in the opening round. He has been to two Stanley Cup Finals and left without a cup both times. He is one of the most gifted players the sport has ever seen, and he is openly saying that individual production has not been enough and that he wants someone to push him on the things that do not come naturally.
Babcock’s most serious issues have historically not surfaced until years after
The major complication with the hire perhaps is that Babcock’s most serious issues have historically not surfaced in real time. The Marner list, in which Babcock asked a teenage Mitch Marner to rank his Leafs teammates by work ethic and then shared those rankings with the players at the bottom, became public years after it happened.
The Johan Franzen situation, in which the former Red Wings forward described years of verbal mistreatment and said the experience contributed to anxiety and long-term trauma, came out long after both men had moved on. Columbus was different in that the fallout was immediate, but it still required an external NHLPA process to force a resolution. Those situations weren’t famously corrected from the inside by teammates stepping in during the season.
McDavid perhaps has more leverage than any player Babcock has previously coached. His team-friendly two-year extension at $12.5M per season was signed with the understanding that Edmonton would build a championship roster around him and the expiration date on that window in 2028 is something the entire organization is aware of.
For now, the Oilers are wagering that the Babcock who shows up in Edmonton reflects his coaching record more than his player relationships. McDavid and the leadership group are wagering that they have enough standing to make that bet worth taking.
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