Many coaches have tried to get this core over the top. Knoblauch was preceded by Jay Woodcroft, Dave Tippett, Ken Hitchcock, and Todd McLellan, who all had McDavid and Draisaitl.
“Those are all real good coaches (Tippett, Hitchcock, and McLellan) and I know them all real well and they would have done their thing here. I wasn’t here and I don’t know what happened,” Babcock said. “All I know is the conversation I had with these gentlemen (McDavid, Draisaitl, Hyman) and I just talked to them again yesterday, and they know exactly what’s expected and we’re going to make sure that happens.”
Babcock said D.J. Smith was brought in as associate coach to help him bridge the gap between his coaching tenures. The two worked together for four seasons in Toronto.
Babcock was due to make a comeback with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023-24, but resigned before even coaching a game on Sept. 18, 2023, five days after the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast reported he asked players to share personal photos on their private mobile devices.
The situation was investigated by the NHL Players’ Association before Babcock, who was hired July 1, 2023, announced his resignation.
The NHL recently looked into the allegations when it became evident Edmonton was pursuing Babcock and allowed him to return.
He comes to Edmonton with an impressive resume, ranked 12th in regular-season wins (700), and eighth in playoff wins (90) in NHL history.
Babcock won the Stanley Cup with Detroit Red Wings in 2008 and went to the Final the following season, losing in seven games to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He also took the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to Game 7 of the Final against the New Jersey Devils in his first season as an NHL coach in 2003.
He said star players sometimes have to sacrifice offense for a team to be successful.
“I don’t know if you ever heard of this guy named Steve Yzerman, he played in the League for a long, long, time, scored tons and tons of points and then a gentleman named Scotty Bowman came in there and he didn’t score quite as many points but won three Stanley Cups,” Babcock said. “Stevie is a good friend of mine he would tell you in a second, he would rather win the Cups.
“We’re not asking him (McDavid) to score less, we’re asking him to do things right to make everyone else on the team important and play in a different way in some details of the game. I’ve walked through this in detail with them. They say they’re in.”
Babcock coached Canada to an IIHF World Junior championship (1997), an IIHF World Championship (2004), back-to-back Olympic gold medals (2010, 2014) and victory at the World Cup of Hockey (2016).
The Oilers are hoping he can add to that championship pedigree in Edmonton.
“We have to do whatever is best for the team on a daily basis, that’s what we’re going to do,” Babcock said. “We want the fans of the Oilers to be beyond proud. It doesn’t matter what I say here, it matters what we do going ahead.
“The reality is that’s what’s going to happen. We’re going to make everybody more inclusive and everybody more important. At the same time, those guys are going to be huge players in it, but they’re the ones asking for this. Sometimes when you’re 18 you don’t think like that, but when you want to win a championship, that’s how you start thinking.”
