Lots of talk lately about Mike Babcock and young players. Since we do have some history on how players were handled, let’s have a look and see what we can find. Please read this.
I wrote about Josh Leivo earning a chance about 20 times, so he’s the first name that comes to mind from the Toronto factory of a decade ago. I wrote the following on this blog, July 23, 2017:
FINDING LEIVO
The Toronto Maple Leafs are flat out loaded up front now, and I remain convinced this young man is going to have a career. Listed as a LW (shoots right), the Maple Leafs don’t play him and can’t send him down because of waivers. Toronto has options for 1.5 teams up front; the Houston Astros of my youth taught me to look for solutions in places where possible answers are in abundance.
In 41 NHL games, Leivo is 9-9-18 and last season his 5×5/60 total was 3.12 (seven points in 13 games). He is 24 and his cap hit is $612,500. I used to think Edmonton could grab him on waivers but now a trade seems more likely. Lou is always fair in trade talk (this is meant as a joke). Leivo is a hidden value, except everyone knows about him (or Toronto would have eased him through waivers last winter). Perhaps a prospect of note who can be sent down could successfully pry Leivo from Lou.
TEN YEARS AFTER
People did blame Mike Babcock for Leivo’s healthy scratches (during the 2017-18 season, he was scratched 14 games in a row). Looking back, though, Lou should have traded Leivo because the TML development and procurement system was producing many good forwards. Here are the rookies by year, beginning 2014-15, the year before Babcock arrived. I’m listing only wingers, and wingers who would play 100+ games in the NHL:
- 2014-15: Josh Leivo (265)
- 2015-16: William Nylander (750), Zach Hyman (711), Connor Brown (676), Kasperi Kapanen (568)
- 2016-17: Mitch Marner (738)
I think we can see what happened here. Leivo got (in the parlance of the great movie Oh Brother, Where Are Thou?) r-u-n-o-v-e-r-d by five rocknrollas. Honestly, I think Nikita Soshnikov was a better player but he could never stay healthy.
Oilers rookie wingers last season included Matt Savoie, Ike Howard, Colton Dach, Connor Clattenburg, Quinn Hutson and Roby Jarventie. I think Savoie and Howard belong in the ‘draft pedigree’ group with Nylander and Marner; Dach might land in the ‘worked his butt off’ group with Hyman and Brown; Clattenburg is an outlier’s outlier and I can’t say where he’ll go; Jarventie appears to be the Soshnikov (who was still playing last season) in this scenario.
Bottom line: I don’t see a lot of evidence that Babcock muffled any young talent. He rewarded the men who were productive. He sure did like the workers, though. Just like MacT.
Edmonton Oilers procure 2 under-the-radar players of interest in July 1 flurry
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7421762/2026/07/05/edmonton-oilers-nhl-free-agency-2026-players/
If Howard plays on the third line to start the season, I wont be disappointed.
What I hope is that Babcock creates three outscoring lines and roles them. I don’t particularly care how these three lines outscore either. Sheer offensive overwhelm with McDavid and Hyman, two way brilliance with Drai and Podz, or complete shutdown of the other team and pop a few timely goals with Dickinson and Nuge.
If reports out of Bakersfield via OP are accurate, Howard worked his bag off on the defensive side. We know he has the shot to score.
Maybe the easier transition is to put Howard on a defensive line where he continous to learn the finer points of playing defense at the NHL level without the pressure to score 20 goals immediately.
Elliotte Friedman
@FriedgeHNIC
Robertson has indicated he will file for arbitration, which will also eliminate the possibility of an offer sheet for him
5 ET is official deadline. If eligible players do not go this route, teams have until tomorrow to decide if they will
It will be fascinating to see what an arbitrator might give Robertson in light off the new era of cap inflation.
This might work out very well for Dallas as Tyler Seguin’s $9.85 million comes off the cap at the end of the upcoming season.
It is also possible that Nill and Robertson have a nudge nudge wink wink deal in store already for when Robertson hits UFA status.
Then Octagon hockey tells other teams what the deal could be, another squad says I’ll do more and Nill is left winking at himself in the mirror.
Hyman played almost exclusively with Matthews in his full rookie season – he was not near the player he is today (10G/28P in all 82 games) but Babcock rolled him out there.
Issac Howard, of course, not a similar player to Hyman at all but I think some have a narrative driven view of cocky, soft and entitled.
Issac Howard proved in Bako to be a very coachable young man and a very hard worker. He’s not going to set records for hits in the playoffs but he will engage in battle and work away from the puck.
I don’t know if Babcock and Bowman have a plan right now for Howard as 1-2LW or 3-4LW in the AHL but I do presume that Babcock will see the skill plus work come September.
I think the message for the players (old & new) will be simple; work hard, don’t lose your check or cheat for offense.
Every coach wants the same thing, not every coach is willing to hold players accountable.
The ones that do have different methods,
Babcocks methods have been famously reported on
The question is how will the players respond,
Im not worried about the new players….
I enjoyed this analysis. I am also interested in seeing how Babcock handled the youth while in Detroit given they had more high end veterans the youth had to compete with. This may be a good comparison to the Oilers today.
E.g., how did players like Darren Helm, Justin Abdelkader, Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar, and Danny DeKeyser get incorporated into the lineup? Did they start from the bottom in a checking role with no PP time and earn their way up kind of like Savoie last year? Or were they inserted into the top 6 immediately? I’d suggest the former is more likely but I don’t know.
If youth are starting from the bottom I expect (with all healthy) the following is the assumed starting lineup:
Nuge McDavid Hyman
Podkolzin Draisaitl Kapanen
Frederic Dickinson Savoie
Jones Samanski Joseph
Dach
Howard would have to outplay Dach, Jones, Joseph and Janmark to stay with the Oilers. Thoughts?
It is an encouraging thought that Babcock played the Toronto youth. I hope he does so here.
It is slightly different contexts however. Babcock came into a team climbing out of a rebuild and Matthews, Marner, and Nylander were top ten picks. The plan was grow so that you win in 3-5 years and if it works it will obviously be with the youth of today growing into it, including the Hymans and Browns.
Babcock steps into an Oilers team that wants to win right now and Howard is not Marner.
With all the smoke signals put out there it seems to me like Stan’s “we’re fine with starting the year with this current roster” is the same as “we’re fine with Nurse returning”. They are looking to add a top six winger.
Good take. Ike wanted out of Tampa bcs he wants to play, and it looks like he worked and is ready enough. If he doesn’t go in a deal, I’m not sure how happy he’d be with another potential season in the A. Interesting times
Good points.
I would argue though that they don’t need Howard to be Marner. They already have their fully formed superstars and above average scorers (ie. Hyman). They need Howard to be a young Kapanen, who scored 20-22-44 with 16 minutes TOI as a 22 year old under Babcock. Here’s hoping Babcock has the patience to do that again.
I do agree that they are still looking for a top 6 winger. But for the first time in forever, I have hope (not belief), that Bowman will be more patient than the previous GMs and not try and force a square peg in a round hole just to fill it. I think Bowman would truly be comfortable starting the year as is, but with cap space accruing, and actually having the ability to pounce on the right player when they become available, even at the trade deadline if it doesn’t present itself in the off-season.
Patrick Laine could be had for low numbers,He would be a good add on withMcDrai.
Wouldn’t give Laine anything more then a PTO followed by a minimum contract at best.