Insider Reveals Details of Intense Meeting Between Oilers and Babcock

The Edmonton Oilers have yet to officially hire Mike Babcock as their new head coach, but all signs point to that coming to fruition sooner rather than later after he was cleared following a lengthy NHL investigation.

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It’s expected that the deal will be finalized early this week, and with Babcock to Edmonton all but certain, more details around the hiring process have emerged.

On Monday, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman revealed intel into a meeting that went down involving Babcock and several key Oilers players.

Friedman said:

“Like we also said last week, I think the Oilers were all in on this — they weren’t backing down. I don’t think their players were backing down.

You know, I heard from a couple of people that when he met with the three Oilers players, it was some meeting. Like I heard they really grilled him hard, and I heard he spoke to them about their own role in the fact that the Oilers haven’t won yet very bluntly,”

The 63-year-old Babcock has been out of the NHL since September 2023, when he resigned from his role as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets before even coaching a game with the team.

It’s quite clear that Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and company are fully on board with Babcock and want to be pushed in the hope it helps get them over the final hump and win a Stanley Cup in Edmonton.

While Babcock has had well-documented issues, there’s no denying his resume is full of winning, including a Stanley Cup, two Olympic gold medals with Team Canada, and a World Cup of Hockey.

The move comes with plenty of risk for the Oilers and could ultimately be the deciding factor in how the McDavid-Draisaitl era ends in Edmonton.

Next: Insider Says Maple Leafs Are Big-Game Hunting for a Goalie