This in from Edmonton Oilers coach Mike Babcock, his discussion on Oilers Now with host Bob Stauffer, about how he’s spent his summer studying the habits of Edmonton’s top NHL competition and stealing what he can to work into his own team’s play.

Babcock took a break from bow hunting for elk in South Dakota to talk to Stauffer.

One key for Babcock, who hasn’t coached an NHL game since 2019-20, was to study other NHL teams this summer and to understand and adopt their best practices. “That’s what our total focus was,” Babcock said. “To say that you can join the league again and say, ‘Hey, I’m going to do it the way I did it,’ that makes no sense. But what we try to do is, we try to both playoff-wise and regular season-wise evaluate what works, what’s best. And so by doing that, you’ve got a plan of how you’re going to play and, basically, you’ve stolen from multiple teams, and then you’re going to look at your group and you’re going to say, ‘Can we do this?'”

The key is to see how his players take to these ideas in training camp, Babcock said.

“The bottom line: until I’m out there with them every day, until I watch them, I’m not going to know. We have a plan. We know exactly what we’re going to do, but we’re ready to adjust a little bit at the start as well, and then build a foundation of just trying to get better every single day and making each other accountable and having a great time doing it.”

On this same topic, Babcock also said, “We don’t even know our team. Until you’re with them every day, you can have all these theories in the summer. But when the season starts, you got to be ready to adjust to the group you have.”

Donskov hiring

On the hiring of new consulting coach Misha Donskov, Babcock said he got to know the long-time NHL assistant coach through Hockey Canada

“We just felt that Misha could make us all better. And what I mean by that, when you work at Hockey Canada, you get to be around the best of the best. I know that because I was involved in it for years and years and years. I worked with him at the World Cup. I was impressed with him. We became friends, talked to him a lot, and he’s a guy that is confident enough to make you better. Doesn’t mind giving you feedback and is ultra, ultra organized. So we’ve hired him to help us be better and to make everybody accountable, to make everyone grow as a coach, and he’ll be great at it.”

Theft as process

Babcock said he’s always studied opposing coaches and worked to implement and adopt their ideas. He did so when he coached Red Deer College in the Alberta college league against NAIT’s Perry Pearn. “He was way better than me. So I call it R and D. Rob and Do. So we just stole everything he did, and we just did, and tried to beat them.”

He did the same when he moved on to the Western Hockey League and had the task of beating the best coach in that league, Don Hay of Kamloops. “So we just stole what he did and tried to make sure we beat them in the end. And I think you do that at every level. You just try to grow as a person in any business.”

One of his favourite sayings, Babcock said, is, “What won in 2010 at the Olympics isn’t going to win in 2014 at the Olympics.”

Babcock continued: “You have to continue to embrace lifelong learning, and you got to continue to grow. And a huge part of that is the people you hire to be around you to push you to be better… Every one of our players, including our leadership group, knows they can grow as players to be better, and that’s the challenge for them… They’re going to get to know me. I’m going to get to know them, and we’re going to try to make each other better.”

He added, bringing up Stauffer’s notion of having fun in the process, “Yeah, I think one of the words you started with was ‘fun.’ You know, I’m too old not to have fun. I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t going to be a riot. And so we’re going to have as much fun as we can possibly have, and try to get better each and every day. And that’s going to be our focus.”

Injury situation

On the Oilers injury situation, with forward Matt Savoie and goalie Frederik Andersen injured during summer training, Babcock said it’ll simply be ‘next man up’ on the Oilers.

Babcock noted that goalie Tristan Jarry, injured last year, is ready to go.

“We’re going to need a bounce back in Jars for sure. And he’s going to do that. He’s done an unbelievable job this summer with his fitness level. Freddie isn’t going to be ready to go. Gives (rookie goalie Devon) Levi a real good opportunity, which is good too. And, you know, everyone talks about injuries and stuff like that, but all injuries do is give someone else an opportunity, and that’s the way I look at it. We’re going to find out more about other players.”

My take

1. Gotta love the colourful way that Babcock talks. What NHL teams do in plain sight isn’t necessarily stealing. It’s  open season for their competitors to learn and to copy, if they can. Of course, you can’t have Carolina’s puck possession without massive skill, and you can’t have Florida’s defensive intensity, without major commitment and toughness.

The challenge for the Oilers is to demonstrate they’ve got those qualities.

2. As for having fun, yes, that’s good, but there are two things in the NHL: winning and misery.

That goes doubly so for this team, which is led by men like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, fully committed to do all they can to win big in 2026-27.

3. Overall, I’m loving what I hear from Babcock. He’s not guessing at what to do. He knows what to do. He’s got a finely honed process. He’s done it again and again. He’s taken teams that didn’t win and he’s had success with them, sometimes the ultimate success of winning a championship.

That kind of knowledge and confidence is infectious. I can see why the teams leadership group, McDavid, Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, took to Babcock after meeting with him.

He’s not fresh out of the package. But he sounds like he’s got a plan for the coming hockey wars.