The Edmonton Oilers hired Mike Babcock on Tuesday, clearing the way for the polarizing taskmaster to coach his first NHL game in more than six years after the NHL cleared him following an investigation into his aborted 2023 stint in Columbus.
Babcock is now in charge of trying to get Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl a Stanley Cup championship after two of the best hockey players in the league have fallen short over the past decade.
D.J. Smith, who was most recently the interim replacement in Los Angeles after Jim Hiller was fired and ran the bench in Ottawa from 2019-23, was named an associate coach. Smith was an assistant under Babcock in Toronto.
Babcock has not coached a game in the league since being fired by the Maple Leafs 23 games into the 2019-20 season.
Babcock, 63, has championship experience from coaching Detroit to the Cup in 2008. He made two other trips to the final, with Anaheim in ‘03 and when the Red Wings went again in ’09 and lost to Pittsburgh. He also guided Canada to back-to-back Olympic goal medals in 2010 and ’14.
Babcock also brings baggage.
He stepped down from the Blue Jackets’ job before training camp in September 2023 after taking the job on July 1. At the time, Babcock’s requests for personal photos from players in an attempt to get to know them drew criticism as an invasion of privacy.
When word emerged that Edmonton was interested in hiring Babcock, the NHL Players’ Association asked the league to review what happened three years ago. The NHL in a statement said it found nothing to prevent him from being employed by a team.
Former players have spoken out about Babcock’s old-school tendencies that some say can be considered bullying.
A report surfaced after the Maple Leafs fired Babcock that he had asked Mitch Marner to share his ranking of teammates from hardest- to least-hardest working and then shared that with the rest of the group. Former Red Wings player Johan Franzen told a Swedish outlet that Babcock was the worst person he had ever met and said at one point he was terrified to go to the rink.
Retired defenseman Mike Commodore, who played for Babcock briefly in 2011 in Detroit, spoke out this spring.
“I don’t want to hear another word about how important mental health is for us when you literally just paved the way, cleared the way for Mike Babcock to get another opportunity in the NHL and put him in another position of power where he can abuse people,” Commodore said on the “Clearing the Crease” podcast.
Daniel Winnik, who played for Babcock in 2015-16 with the Leafs, last week called him “the only guy that’s ever made me hate hockey.”
“I just hated coming to the rink,” Winnik said on TSN 1050 radio in Toronto. “He’s just a bully.”
Kris Knoblauch, who coached Edmonton to consecutive trips to the Cup final in 2024 and ’25, was fired May 14 — a decision announced after news leaked that the Oilers had been denied permission by division rival Vegas to interview 2023 Cup-winning coach Bruce Cassidy, whom the Golden Knights fired on March 30 with eight games left in the regular season. Cassidy remains under contract for one more year.
The Oilers instead turned to Babcock, whose 700 regular season and 90 playoff victories rank 12th and 10th, respectively, in NHL history.
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