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Trying to find positives in the Oilers’ hiring of Babcock and Smith
Photo credit: © Jerome Miron-Imagn Images
Jun 24, 2026, 17:00 EDTUpdated: Jun 24, 2026, 16:03 EDT
I was pessimistic about the Edmonton Oilers hiring Mike Babcock from the second the rumours started to fly around, and yesterday’s introductory press conference didn’t do anything to ease my concerns.
I still think this is a coach who, at one point, was one of the best, if not the best, in the sport. But that was over a decade ago.
Off the ice, the game and the culture around the sport have changed so much over the last 10-plus years, and his last stop in Columbus showed that he couldn’t adapt.
On the ice, the game is changing even faster than that, and his stint in Toronto — the last time he actually coached a game in the NHL — showed that he couldn’t adapt that way either.
Aside from all the baggage he comes with, which he took virtually no accountability for yesterday, it is absolutely fair to wonder if Babcock is capable of still being a successful coach in the modern NHL.
He simply hasn’t proven it.
Still, he is a fresh voice for the Oilers, and considering just how stale the team looked for the bulk of the 2025-26 season, it’s hard to argue against their decision to bring in a different voice. And when you compare the personalities of Babcock and former Head Coach Kris Knoblauch… well, they’re certainly different.
I do not think we will see the Oilers sleepwalk their way into this regular season the way they have so many times over the past few years under different coaches. I think the presence of Babcock, whether you like it or not, will have everybody on high alert from the second training camp starts.
Also, considering players like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl were on board with his controversial hire, I would imagine that the tone in the locker room will be much different than the “we know when we have to play our best” language we were hearing from the players last season.
Simply put, that won’t fly under Babcock, and I will say that is one positive I’m looking forward to as this new era begins. I want to see the Oilers be a great regular-season team and I think Babcock can help get them there. For all his postseason shortcomings in Toronto, he did get that team to be a 100-point team in each of his final two full regular seasons with the club.
As much as I am not enthused by the Babcock hiring, I will say that the D.J. Smith angle is very intriguing to me. I think he is a very smart coach who has a history of being around teams with strong defensive metrics.
I think he can make a very strong impact on this blueline and on the penalty kill, which I have high hopes for heading into next season. It sounds like one thing that Babcock and Smith want to do is reduce the regular season minutes for McDavid and Draisaitl, and one way they’ll do that is by pulling back their minutes on the penalty kill.
I have never been a fan of McDavid killing penalties.
Can he do it effectively? Yes, but the downside has just never been worth it.
First off, penalty killing requires blocking a lot of shots, and I have no interest in watching McDavid block shots during a game in the middle of the regular season.
I also think that having other players “own” that part of the game is a good way for a coaching staff to get more pieces throughout the roster involved and taking some pride in the contributions that they’re making.
It’s a way to get more players involved and reducing situations where guys might be sitting on the bench for prolonged stretches because the game is filled with penalties and the Oilers’ big guns are both killing penalties and playing on the power play.
For the record, I think the Oilers’ star players should still be playing 75 per cent or more of the powerplay time, because they’re so damn good at it, but if that’s going to happen then you need to find time for players to make contributions in other ways and the penalty kill is an easy way to do that.
Babcock had a line yesterday when asked about how McDavid, Draisaitl and Hyman said that they wanted to be pushed and coached harder, “I said, well, that’s great to talk about in June when camp starts, and you’re making a guy do things, (they) might not be so happy, and they said, ‘No, that’s not how it’s going to be.”
I think that sentiment can be applied to the coaching staff in some aspects as well.
Giving depth players minutes and more responsibility is something that both Knoblauch and Jay Woodcroft talked about when they started and they both did it for a while… and then they slowly stopped and by the end of their tenures, the conversation was the same: they relied on McDavid and Draisaitl too much.
I think it’s easy in theory to sit and say that you aren’t going to play the two superstar forwards as much… and then when you’re down 3-1 in a hockey game and really want to win that night, you lean heaviest on the players who can get you back in the game and after that works a few times, you’re even quicker to pull the trigger on it going forward.
I’m pretty sure that Babcock is more stubborn than the previous two coaches, so I actually am pretty confident that he could stick to his guns on this.
A reduced workload for McDavid and Draisaitl combined, giving players lower in the lineup more minutes and more chances to feel like they’re impacting the game are two things that came from yesterday’s press conference that do give me some amount of optimism that Babcock and Smith can make some good changes.
Am I fully on board with these hirings? No. I think there is tremendous risk in the experiment that the Oilers are running.
But that doesn’t mean I think it’s all bad. There are some areas where I am hopeful that the new coaching staff can make some positive changes and get the most out of this team.
Tyler’s Ace Race is Back July 13th!
After coming painfully close last year, Tyler Yaremchuk is stepping back onto the tee box for another shot at glory. On July 13th, Tyler’s Ace Race – The Revenge Tour – presented by bet365 returns to Cattail Crossing Golf Club, where Tyler will attempt to hit a hole-in-one over the course of a 24-hour live stream. The entire challenge will be broadcast live on YouTube as Tyler battles fatigue, pressure, and his own golf swing in pursuit of the elusive ace. Don’t miss out, this is going to be quite a show.
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