Well, that was a quick investigation. The court of Gary Bettman acted unusually fast, and the Edmonton Oilers are expected to make the Mike Babcock hiring official any time.

Once that ink dries and we find out the time, put a notification in your calendar. Set an alarm. That press conference ought to be entertaining.

Many words have been written or spoken about Babcock through Oilersnation’s platforms that tackle the moral-personal side of the hire or incidents with players in the past. Those concerns are not only reasonable but also justified.

This is not that type of article necessarily. It’s hard to untie one from the other, but this will be an attempt here.

Regardless, the move is gonna happen. We hope to learn some answers to these questions from the press conferences. Others? Time will tell.

What was the hiring process?

Some indication of the Oilers’ process in making this hire would be good to know. The timeline, the plans, who led the Babcock discussions, etc.

Is ownership being heavy-handed like some reports have indicated since the first-round exit to Anaheim, or was this a consensus idea that all the Oilers brass were behind?

Taking Babcock at his word, he was content to stay out of the limelight and be retired from coaching, out of the public eye forever. The Columbus experience had to be humbling, if not embarrassing.

Pierre McGuire spoke to this more on The Larry & Big Man Show based in Pittsburgh, sharing his attempt a few months ago to interview Babcock.

“I spoke to Mike Babcock a week before the Olympics,” said McGuire. “One of the people I wanted to interview for my show with 1Team Media was Mike Babcock about all the things he’d gone through, his successes, his failures, how he’s dealt with everything.

“He goes, ‘I’d love to talk to you. We’ve been friends for a long time, but I’m no longer relevant in hockey. I’m not working in the hockey business anymore. I appreciate your interest. I’m not doing the job. I’m not going to do the show.’ I said, ‘Not a problem. I completely respect that.’

It doesn’t seem like Babcock was sniffing around for work. He’s not hurting for money. Toronto paid him $50 million alone, the most lucrative NHL coaching contract we’ve ever seen.

My guess is Darryl Katz picked up the phone first and was the driver.

This is relevant because the GM and coach have to work together quickly, or at least be on the same page on who the team is targeting in free agency, through trades, and even the draft. After what appeared like a lack of cohesion between Stan Bowman and Kris Knoblauch on the players they were bringing to Edmonton and how they were deployed, this hire is crucial.

There will never be 100 per cent agreement, nor is that healthy, but if Bowman wasn’t driving Babcock’s hiring, will a lack of cohesion from GM to coach remain?

For example, if Babcock is an owner-driven hire, could he not jump the organization chart to Katz to get his way if he disagrees with Bowman?

If there’s any lesson to be learned about Babcock’s stories, is he has strong opinions about his players. One of the prevailing rumours, which has been debated, is questioning why Babcock did what he did with Mitch Marner. Is because Babcock wanted Noah Hanifin in that draft class (whom Carolina chose with the next pick in 2015), but management liked Marner. So his perception of Marner didn’t start in a great place.

Discovering the order of events speaks to the organizational process. I wrote about that in greater length last Sunday. Who really hires whom? What are the roles and responsibilities of each person in the food chain?

Don’t get me wrong, Oilers fans don’t have an inherent right to know everything that goes on behind closed doors. Katz can run the Oilers how he likes. It’s his business, and it may work. But it would be good to know how they arrived here.

There is extremely high public pressure for the Oilers to win the Stanley Cup. That pressure isn’t just outside noise, though, but living between those walls too. We should get a little information about this during the press conference.

What is the right contract for Mike Babcock?

I can’t see anything longer than a two-year deal making sense, matching the two-year McDavid contract timeline.

That two-year one can also be viewed as a de facto one-year deal, since no coach signs a contract that short. Unless that’s how it’s been framed to Babcock. Try it for a season, Mike, see how you feel. That could’ve been the attraction. One Last Chance.

That could free them up a year from now to hire Bruce Cassidy without feeling they’re punting McDavid’s 29-year-old turning 30 year away. That type of thinking seems inherently flawed to me, but I can’t rule it out.

Although if an Eastern Conference team mid-season asks Vegas for permission on Cassidy, I expect it to be granted, like the alleged OK to talk during the Stanley Cup Final.

Either way, there’s no need for Edmonton to contractually hitch itself to the Babcock wagon for the long-term.

In theory, the Oilers should have leverage on the money side of things. But assuming it’s Katz who handpicked Babcock, then some of that would be conceded. It’s Katz’s money, and he’s already paying one coach not to coach before a contract begins. Knoblauch is going to name his boat DK after all.

Who will show up at the press conference?

And no, I don’t mean whether Steve Simmons will be airdropped to berate Babcock and call him a “con man” and a “liar” like he’s John Chayka.

Stan Bowman is a given as the GM. But could Daryl Katz be available to take questions? Would the Oilers leadership group be there? Obviously, it’s unusual to have a big party of management or players attend a new coach press conference, but this isn’t the usual coaching hiring.

The last two weeks of Oilers Now, Bob Stauffer’s been adamant that from top to bottom this is the organization’s choice, including the leadership group who spoke with Babcock themselves. With all the influences at play, shouldn’t we get more than just Bowman at the press conference?

The strangeness of the Oilers’ 2025-26 season made me think a Katz sighting is possible, the first in seven years. With all the noise, it could be time for a State of the Oilers address, whether to expand upon Leon Draisaitl’s exit interview (Bowman and Knoblauch spoke before he did) or speak to the fans directly about this hire.

With that said, I give it a 10 per cent chance Katz arrives, or McDavid or Draisaitl is there. I wouldn’t expect Jackson, either.

This will be painted as how Bowman earns his money. He’ll be the riot shield if things turn sour.

However, it would be a public showing of solidarity for their choice if it was a group there, particularly Connor McDavid, saying we’re all in this together.

Can Babcock change?

Normally, there is some atonement period for a person like Babcock that helps an organization, from a PR standpoint, feel comfortable making a controversial hire. Some showing of having learned lessons or evidence that what happened before won’t happen again. Without knowing that piece, that’s why many are dead set against it.

The head coach has a huge role in driving the culture and team morale of the group, which is why if Babcock continues to conduct himself as he did before, this decision can blow up in their face.

Listen to the reverence in Carolina Hurricanes players’ voices when they talk about Rod Brind’Amour. Their success shows that the modern version of hard, direct, demanding coach can generate the ultimate buy-in from a team. But I’m guessing that Brind’Amour doesn’t play head games with his team, either.

The issues that former players – and no, not just fringe NHLers, but established veterans too – had with Babcock weren’t about being demanding, in-your-face, or carving into them if they made a mistake (except for Johan Franzen, maybe some others). It’s lying to your face to toy with you.

Again, these aren’t one-off scenarios, but a pattern of behaviour throughout his coaching career.

The longer Babcock was in the game, the less success he had. Is that because he couldn’t build the right team culture and morale over a long season, versus a short tournament like the Olympics, to win the Stanley Cup?

I repeat John Shannon’s words from Oilers Now last week:

“Mike actually is a good person, but something happens to Mike Babcock when he gets authority,” he said.

“Something happens, a switch gets flicked, and then Mike becomes dictatorial. The question becomes for me, if you’re looking at this organization and what obviously the owner wants and what the players want in this scenario: Who is going to keep Mike in check?

“Then, more importantly, and this is something I think Mike will have to address, is how will Mike react to criticism like that? Because we’ve all been around him in these scenarios, and Mike has not taken criticism well. Mike pushes back, and quite frankly, Mike becomes a hardass.”

Some of the “keeping in line” duties would have to fall on McDavid’s and Draisaitl’s shoulders. But they can’t be immune from the hard coaching or Babcock’s way of doing things, either. Isn’t that why they want a hard coach in the first place?

Someone with the “gravitas” that if he wants to only play them for 18 minutes one night, then so be it? Oh, the first power play unit is changing 50 seconds into the man advantage. Babs’ choice.

This is where I’m not sure they want Babcock to change. If it were that easy, it could’ve happened during his “second chance” in Columbus. Some players didn’t have any issues. Some had had enough that Babcock was forced to resign.

I’ll be curious to hear his answer during the press conference. I think anyone can, but it’s hard when you’ve been a certain way for so long.

Can Babcock still coach winning hockey at a high level?

My guess is yes, but it’s far from a guarantee.

When Babcock coaches his first game with the Oilers, it’ll be the first time in almost seven calendar years since he last stood on an NHL bench. That’s a long time to be out, then to be thrust back with high expectations.

I’m sure he follows the games, but if he saw himself as retired, then it wouldn’t be with the same fervour. Now, his son is a coach as well, just hired for his biggest coaching gig in Brantford, so I’m sure there’s a lot of hockey philosophy dialogue between the two.

His last full season was with the 2018-19 Toronto Maple Leafs. They finished third in the Atlantic Division with a 46-28-8 record and 100 points, similar to, say, the 2024-25 Edmonton Oilers in record and points.

Four of their top five scorers were 24 years old or younger. The Leafs squandered a 3-2 series lead and lost in seven games to the Boston Bruins, who went all the way to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.

It was back-to-back Game 7 losses to Boston, the year before marching back from 3-1 down to force a decider. Babcock’s last series win was 2013, five consecutive playoff losses.

I’ll say this in Babcock’s defence. Most people now take it for granted that the Leafs grew so quickly from a team that won the fewest games in the NHL in 2015-16, to a playoff berth just a year later, and involved in two coinflip series the next two years.

They probably should’ve won one of the two Boston series. But it’s not self-evident that the Leafs should’ve been so relevant so quickly with a core that young. There are plenty of perennially rebuilding teams. Babcock deserves some credit.

Babcock did play Frederik Andersen in 60 of 82 games in 2018-19. The Oilers will not have that luxury, but that would be true of any coach put in this position.

This situation will be more akin to taking over the Detroit Red Wings, an older veteran team that needs a push to glory. It was Babcock’s third season at the helm that they won the Cup.

There will be plenty of time to dig deeper into the underlying numbers of those Leafs teams. But it wasn’t an abject failure by any means.

Next year’s Oilers won’t have the depth of the 2007-08 Red Wings, but they have a few Ferraris. I do think Babcock could galvanize (instead of ostracize) the bottom-six and give defined roles to players where they are needed.

Will good players say no to Edmonton because of Babcock?

In Elliotte Friedman’s report about the start of the NHL’s investigation into Babcock, some Oilers players’ agents weren’t thrilled with the idea and had concerns.

Jason Gregor tweeted that one unnamed agent told him that the opportunity to play with McDavid and Draisaitl is “diminished” with Babcock there.

Then, Stauffer replied with fire and brimstone and had Gerry Johansson of The Sports Corporation on to say he had no issues. That agency represents Matt Savoie, Colton Dach, and Sebastian Cossa.

Another agent with a large client base is Dan Milstein, who went on a PuckPedia podcast and said similar things.

The truth is probably somewhere in between the two extremes, as individual, case-by-case examples will be the deciders here. There’s little way for the average fan to know unless there are leaks.

No doubt, Edmonton’s reputation isn’t Siberia, despite what Michael Nylander’s wife said almost 20 years ago. But it also isn’t the hotbed of big names.

Regardless of who the coach is, the Oilers are going to sign players and make trades. But it’s the players with options, who can decide between multiple teams in July, or with trade protection to waive a deal, that are under the microscope with this trade. McDavid’s recruiting talents may be tested.

It could be a check under the “cons” box that helps tilt a decision out of favour for the Oilers. It also shows the Oilers value winning more than anything else, which could speak to players who’ve not done much winning in their careers.

That’s where Connor Murphy’s negotiation is fascinating. Babcock aside, I think he’s going to have suitors willing to overpay in a lacking free agent crop.

Murphy talked about Edmonton being a destination for him in March. He’s played so few important games throughout his career. He should want to stay, and the Oilers need him. Babcock might not tilt his decision, but if the Oilers don’t get him re-signed, that will be a part of what people think.

Perceptions, no matter how true, will play a huge role in player’s decisions, and how fans view those players decisions.

If it works, why?

One of the reasons why I think they entered The Babcock Zone is because of his ability to coach great players at the Olympics.

Sure, were those teams stacked? Absolutely. But stacked teams lose all the time. Ask Jon Cooper what happened in February.

The pressure to win at the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver was immense, with the tournament being on home soil, then compounding when Canada lost a preliminary game against the US.

He won’t be asked to coach a bad team or a team on the rise, so the results he has with great teams are very relevant, not a case against.

Babcock’s ego can be a benefit. He’s shouldered a lot of pressure and delivered results before. By hiring him, they have some sense of been-there-done-that, but his presence also adds to that pressure and scrutiny.

Despite Stauffer’s expectation of a seven-year McDavid extension next summer, which came and went so quickly, the actions of everyone involved are looking at the next two years, and maybe even this one year alone, as the season to deliver.

It’s almost impossible to deliver on a one-year, we must win now mission. Considering the narrow field of qualifications the Oilers looked for, Babcock is among the most capable.

I don’t have to squint too hard to see this hire being successful in terms of wins and losses.

The bottom line: I’m intrigued and fascinated about the wide range of outcomes on and off the ice. High-risk, high reward.

Michael Menzies is an Oilersnation columnist and co-host of PreGaming and Oilersnation After Dark. He’s also been the play-by-play voice of the Bonnyville Pontiacs in the AJHL since 2019. With seven years of news experience as the Editor-at-Large of Lakeland Connect in Bonnyville, Menzies collects vinyl, books, and stomach issues. Follow him on X at Menzies_4.

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