{"id":108405,"date":"2026-06-29T11:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/108405\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T11:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T11:36:18","slug":"mike-babcock-claims-edmonton-oilers-are-comfortable-with-him-attributes-columbus-exit-to-wifes-phone-call","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/108405\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike Babcock claims Edmonton Oilers are \u201ccomfortable\u201d with him, attributes Columbus exit to wife’s phone call"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mike Babcock is back. After seven years away from the NHL, the 63-year-old is returning to the bench as the new head coach of the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> and he wants everyone to know the players are on board.<\/p>\n

But his introductory press conference<\/a> at Rogers Place raised quite a few eyebrows. Babcock was confident, self-assured and at times defensive. He deflected questions about his past, credited his wife for his exit from Columbus, and insisted more than once that the people around him are \u201ccomfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Babcock came into the presser knowing he\u2019d have to address the elephant in the room. And that\u2019s his history of making players uncomfortable, from Detroit to Toronto to Columbus. His answer, essentially, was that this time is different because the players said so.<\/p>\n

He described sitting down with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman before accepting the job, walking them through exactly what his coaching style would look like and what changes he\u2019d demand. By his account, they were all in. He then pointed to that buy-in as proof the concerns don\u2019t apply here: \u201cObviously, they\u2019re comfortable, or I wouldn\u2019t be here. I thought that was important to have that happen. So a week in, they can\u2019t be suddenly uncomfortable. We went through that whole process to make sure we\u2019re moving ahead here.\u201d<\/p>\n

What McDavid and Co. told him<\/p>\n

Babcock was clearly energized by his meetings with Edmonton\u2019s core. He described the conversations with the team\u2019s star players as a turning point in his decision.<\/p>\n

He said the stars made their expectations plain from the jump. \u201cThey\u2019ve told me, \u2018We have to be better, and we expect you to make us better,’\u201d he said. And Babcock made his own expectations just as clear, telling the room he laid out in detail what would need to change for the Oilers to win when it counts: \u201cThe interaction with star players who want nothing more than to win and tell you how they\u2019re willing to change and adjust to make that happen is pretty exciting for a coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also left no doubt about the terms under which he took the job. \u201cUnless you\u2019re 100 percent all-in on Mike Babcock,\u201d he told reporters, \u201cI have no interest in coming in and being the coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Babcock attributes Columbus exit to a phone call from his wife<\/p>\n

The trickiest part of the press conference came when reporters pressed Babcock on the Columbus Blue Jackets where he was hired in 2023, accused of invading players\u2019 privacy and had to resign right after.<\/p>\n

Babcock\u2019s answer was notable for what it didn\u2019t include. Well, any real acknowledgment of wrongdoing. Instead, he pointed to internal staff discord and ultimately, a phone call from his wife as the reason he walked away. \u201cIt was very evident before the year started that I hadn\u2019t benched anybody. I hadn\u2019t talked to anybody, I hadn\u2019t sat anybody out, and it was evident that we weren\u2019t together as a staff,\u201d he said. \u201cRight from the get-go, my wife gave me a call, and she said, \u2018It\u2019s time to get out of there.\u2019 I had been retired, was pretty good at it, and I got back to being retired.\u201d<\/p>\n

When followed up and asked directly whether he mishandled the situation in Columbus, Babcock\u2019s answer was a flat no with a caveat. \u201cNo. To be honest with you, anytime you make anybody feel uncomfortable in your life, you should take a look at yourself, and you should say, \u2018How could I do that better?’\u201d he said. \u201cThe situation in Columbus has been reviewed, and I\u2019m thankful to the NHL and NHLPA for doing that. It didn\u2019t work out for us there, but we\u2019re excited about making it work here.\u201d<\/p>\n

TSN insider Jay Onrait noted that nobody should have expected anything different. After watching the presser, he put it plainly: \u201cIt was fascinating. If anybody out there was expecting a Mike Babcock apology tour on his way back to NHL coaching, that was not the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mike Babcock claims he\u2019s changed<\/p>\n

Babcock spent some time trying to thread the needle between defending his track record<\/a> and acknowledging that the game and the way coaches need to operate has evolved. He used the Olympics as a metaphor, pointing to the gap between his 2010 gold medal team in Vancouver and the group that fell short in Sochi four years later as proof that even winning systems have a shelf life.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of things have changed since I talked about 2002. It\u2019s 2026 today. The league\u2019s changed, the players have changed, and you have to change and grow as a coach,\u201d he said. \u201cI know from experience that what won at the Olympics in Vancouver in 2010 couldn\u2019t win in Sochi 2014. You have to adjust, you have to get better, you have to change, and that\u2019s the process that starts here tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what he\u2019s specifically done since leaving Toronto in 2019 to prepare himself, Babcock kept it vague, leaning on family conversations and self-reflection rather than any formal process. \u201cI think the big thing is just about trying to improve yourself and get better. I\u2019m really fortunate that I have three adult children. We talk daily about how you improve and what you do to get better,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Oilers are betting he\u2019s right<\/p>\n

GM Stan Bowman made it clear the organization went into this with open eyes. He acknowledged the skepticism around the hire and laid out the standard Babcock is expected to meet. \u201cThere\u2019s nothing wrong with holding players accountable for their performance but also doing it in a way that\u2019s respectful, and that\u2019s what we expect here,\u201d Bowman said. \u201cI need to trust Mike that he\u2019s going to operate that way, and he needs to trust me that we\u2019re going to do the same thing with everyone that we interact with.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Oilers went to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2024 and 2025 before getting bounced in the first round this spring by the Anaheim Ducks. The pressure to win, and win now, is as intense as it gets.<\/p>\n

Babcock says the players are comfortable. The organization says it trusts him. Whether that trust holds when the hard conversations actually start will be the real story of this season.<\/p>\n

Follow The Oil Rig on social media!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mike Babcock is back. After seven years away from the NHL, the 63-year-old is returning to the bench…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108406,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[461,52,24168,462],"class_list":["post-108405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-connor-mcdavid","tag-edmonton","tag-mike-babcock","tag-zach-hyman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108405"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108405\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}