The Oilers have much up in the air as we approach what could be the final game of the 2025-26 season. We know the next head coach is Mike Babcock, we just don’t know if he can coach until the investigation is complete. Some of the verbal coming out of the insiders over the last 24 hours (Crhis Johnston) suggests Babcock will in fact get the go-ahead to coach the Oilers. Please read this.
Now, Babcock is going to be an excellent coach in his first season with the Oilers. The leadership group has bought in, and the support players can be shuffled and moved out as required. I’ve said this before, but believe Tristan Jarry, Jake Walman and Jack Roslovic (should he sign) would have a more diffiuclt road than the rest of the group.
Babcock arrives in a way that reminds me of Billy Martin when he landed with the Oakland Athletics. Martin was mercurial and impatient, and a hardass’ hardass. You could bounce a quarter off that thing. Legend has it that Martin gathered his gifted starting staff, all fireballers, around him on the first day of spring training. Mike Norris, Steve McCatty, Rick Langford and Matt Keough were informed that the first job of the starting staff was to throw strikes.
The entire staff stood on the mount and threw to a “box” made of string that represented the strike zone. Martin was relentless. On the first day of the exhibition season, McCatty (I think it was McCatty) threw a ball on the first pitch of the game. Martin called time. He rain out to the mound and said “I thought we agreed we were going to throw strikes?”
A team that won 54 games in 1979 won 83 with Martin in 1980. Billy Martin could manage 26 Huskies to a pennant, but there would be a mountain of swearing along the way.
Babcock will receive buy-in or there will be trades. In fact, I’ll just say there will be trades. I think Vincent Deshanais, a name I’ve mentioned previously this spring, might be signed and I’ll guess Connor Murphy and Jason Dickinson are back, too. The second goalie? NO idea. I don’t think it’s going to be a rookie, though.
That brings me to Paul Coffey. Suspect Babcock will want (and be granted) the opportunity to name his own staff, and I further expect Coffey won’t be part of the coaching group this year. I do think we’re going to see a shuffle of AGM’s behine Stan Bowman and Coffey could land high on the staff depth chart. I don’t see any possible way Daryl Katz will avoid rewarding a loyal Coffey for the good works done over the last three seasons.
So, until further notice we talk about the Oilers in the framework of Babcock as head coach, Coffey in a high position hockey ops, and the summer spent on acquiring complementary players for the impact stars already on the roster.
The biggest question I have surrounding Babcock’s vision? Where will he play the Nuge? I would go No. 3 center, heavy PP and PK work. We’ll see.
Five Edmonton Oilers defenders who could step up after a Darnell Nurse trade
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7355864/2026/06/14/edmonton-oilers-defence-darnell-nurse-trade/
Nice article LT. I don’t follow how pairing Walman with Bouch is spreading the wealth. It seems like doubling up on players with the same skill sets and possibly deficiencies. To me Walman adds much better puck moving to 2 pair than Nurse, and at this point Ekholm still works on 1 pair and is a better defender than Walman to back up Bouch
Ekholm can move the puck well. He could slide in on a pair with Conor Murphy and do well. Walman is the weak link in the top four, should move the best defenseman on the team (Bouchard) to that pairing.
It could work very well. My concern would be that Walman and Bouch have a similar game (JW being more physical and meaner) and their defensive lapses might coincide, same issue as with Nurse
I’ve felt from the start Walman will be under pressure from Babcock, but he has good wheels and can transport. Positioning is always a key for defensemen, and ideally the Oilers will be able to keep Ekholm-Bouchard together. My piece at The Athletic today shows Walman vs elites is a mixed bag.
If Nuge is 3C why would Oilers bother with a Dickinson signing?
Let Dickinson walk and wait to see if Kirby Brother of Patty Dach ends up on the open market.
Because they aren’t seriously considering Nuge at 3c and Dickinson would be better. I still see Nuge on the third line but not at center.
well, nobody can say the Oilers Org is a boring one.
Buckle up, sounds like this year will be quite the ride!
It might be fascinating seeing a Babcock coached Oiler team, especially if they don’t buy in.
My gut feeling is that the Oilers are unfixable at the moment. “I find my lack of faith comforting.”
I am not convinced that Babcock is hired, I’ll believe when I see it. I suspect that there is pressure being applied on Vegas behind the scenes and that Cassidy will be announced as HC within the month.
What is the best case scenario with Darnell Nurse? $2.5 million retained for Seeler and a 3rd? Going back 2 years, I’ve always thought Philly would be his landing spot.
What do y’all think the best outcome out of each of the Draft & Silly Season will be?
It honestly doesnt seem worth it even just for the issues they may have recruiting. They need good bottom 6/bottom 4 role players. These are the players that Babcock seems to bully… why would they want to come here
If Seeler is the return there should be no need for retention. Nurse has a lot more value and they have a ton of cap. Bowman’s moves have been such it’s hard to predict what the return might be. Complete opposite to Holland, and he usually gets extra players
The org has been very reluctant over the years to move Nuge down the the third line. Has he ever been given a stretch as 3C? I don’t recall.
I think his placement is impossible to know as we just don’t know how much cap is available after the Nurse trade to obtain a 3C with the need to updgrade 3LD. I mean, if somehow Noah Cates comes back in the trade, great, but it seems unlikely. Maybe it’s Sean C. but I hope for a smaller bad cap contract.
I don’t think they fade Nuge on PP1 – all the numbers, year after year after year show the PP struggles when he’s out. If anyone gets faded I think it’s Hyman.
Knob had this weird thing about Nuge not being able to play 3rd line as they needed that line after power plays – bullocks!
In any event, I heard rumblings of another hand/wrist injury for Nuge mid-season. That does line up as he a had a very strong first third and then fell off a cliff.
I expect a better 5 on 5 season from Nuge, no matter where he plays.
I think the concern with Nuge at 3C is he isn’t the strongest skater, solid edges but not great with speed and first steps. Which is probably why he’s so much better on the PP than 5v5 throughout his career outside of one season. Babcock it seems has the C come down low to support the breakout, suits strong skating
LT writes: “Babcock is going to be an excellent coach in his first season with the Oilers.”
How do we know this? I do hope you are correct, but the man has not coached in the NHL for six years. He has not coached a team past the second round since 2009. I suspect that his most familiar tools of persuasion will be under close scrutiny and won’t have the same impact as in prior decades. Is this Pat Quinn redux? Again, I hope not, but I lack confidence in the process that led the Oilers to Babcock.
Gregor wrote a good article a while back outlining how any coach in their first year will have a good year because every coach that has taken over the Oilers in recent years has had a good first year
Babcock will show up with a sense of urgency no coach has been able to manage since MacT. The coach is always lollygagging through October. Babcock, by his nature, will not allow that kind of prep. I think we see a trade in preseason, too. This is going to be an unusual season.
That’s a reasonable prediction, and do hope you are right. I fully agree that it will be an unusual season.
I have been operating that it’s a foregone conclusion that Coffey is not back as a coach.
I suspect that, presuming it’s Babcock, DJ Smith will join him (and, if it’s Cassidy, Kevin Dean).
Gregor has said he sees Coffey as the next PoHO. I dont see him as an AGM grinding away with the younger guys.
This implies Jackson is out. I don’t see that happening. The truth is out there.
I agree with that too. Not sure where he fits, it is crowded
Truth be told Jackson should be gone.
Katz plans surround 97 staying for his career. I have zero idea what flushing Jackson might do to the plan, but will guess Jackson stays.
Special advisor is a better gig than POHO. He will get paid well and isn’t tied to specific things to do or a chain of command. Just his opinions and the fun stuff
Ponder this paradox:
Lots of questionable moves over the years, including allegations that the Big Dogs (McDavid and Drai) have been making management-type calls or approvals including on coaching, player usage, and possibly even acquisitions. The inmates are running the asylum, so to speak. They need a shakeup and a real hard ass coach to come in to disrupt and boss the bench.
On the other hand, retaining McDavid is priority #1. He has all the cards on whether or not he will be here in a year or two. To kill his confidence or make large shifts without consulting him is folly. Some rumours have 97+ in the camp of “bring Babcock in.”
How do we reconcile this?
I think it’s just wait and see. I thought it was more likely that Babcock got derailed but it seems that he might not. My guess is that if nobody hires Cassidy Babcock lasts the season at most and Cassidy ends up with the Oilers at some stage
There is nothing to indicate Babcock has changed, and it remains to be seen if he can coach a team like this and not stifle it’s strengths. Connor and Leon aren’t Datsyuk and Zetterberg and there is no Lidstrom and it’s 20 years later
There’s a Bouchard it will be interesting to see how Babcock and Bouchard relate.
It’s sounding like it’s going to be Babcock after all. I wonder if it will only be one year to start. I sure hope Cassidy is in the picture at some point.
Man that concerns me. I don’t know if Babcock will see the value Bouch brings even with his lapses. Hopefully he watched the Worlds and saw that
It occurs to me that Bouch may have been the biggest factor in the two finals. He was apparently pretty banged up these playoffs. Makar was also and the Avs were not the same team, even before MacKinnon got hurt