NHL-ийн шилдэг тоглогчид багийн шинэ дасгалжуулагчтай хийсэн илэн далангүй ярианы дараа энэхүү томилгоог дэмжиж байгаагаа илэрхийлэв.
Эдмонтон Ойлерс энэ зун Майк Бэбкокийг ахлах дасгалжуулагчаар томилсон нь эрсдэлтэй алхам болсон ч багийн удирдагчид түүнтэй нээлттэй ярилцсаны эцэст ийм шийдвэрт хүрчээ. Леон Драйзайтль тэргүүтэй багийн гол тоглогчид Бэбкокийн өнгөрсөн үеийн үйл ажиллагаа болон тоглогчидтой харилцах арга барилын талаарх хэцүү асуултуудыг шууд тавьсан байна. Драйзайтлийн үзэж буйгаар, Бэбкокийн туршлага болон хариуцлага шаардсан хатуу арга барил нь Стэнлийн цомыг хүртэхийг зорьж буй Эдмонтон Ойлерст одоо хэрэгтэй байгаа зүйл юм.
Эдмонтон Ойлерс 2025-26 оны улиралд 41-30-11 гэсэн тэнцүү үзүүлэлттэй амжилт үзүүлж, улирлын тоглолтын дараах шатанд Анахайм Дакс багт хожигдон тэмцээнээ өндөрлүүлсэн билээ. Багийн лидерүүд болох Коннор Макдэвид, Леон Драйзайтль нар өнгөрсөн улиралд тоглолтын цаг ихээр зарцуулж байсан бол шинэ дасгалжуулагчийн удирдлага дор багийн бусад тоглогчдод илүү их боломж олгож, өрсөлдөөнийг нэмэгдүүлэх зорилготой байна.
Майк Бэбкокийн хувьд 63 насандаа NHL-д эргэн ирж, өөрийн дасгалжуулагчийн ур чадвараа дахин нотлох том сорилттой тулгарч байна. Багийн бүрэлдэхүүн Стэнлийн цомын эзэн болохын тулд хувь хүний амжилтаас илүү багийн нэгдмэл байдлыг эрхэмлэхэд анхаарч байгааг Драйзайтль онцолжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүйг эх сурвалжаас харах
↓Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
MUNICH — Before the Edmonton Oilers made the risky decision to hire Mike Babcock as their head coach this summer, the team’s best players sat down with Babcock for a no-holds-barred conversation that effectively sealed the deal.
No topics were off-limits, according to Oilers superstar Leon Draisaitl, and there was plenty to discuss given Babcock’s lengthy absence from an NHL bench amid a growing list of allegations he mistreated players, not to mention a brief stay with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023 that ended before he even had a chance to run a practice.
“We asked all of the hard questions that media would probably ask him, too,” Draisaitl told The Athletic during the NHL’s European Player Media Tour. “He had some very honest feedback on us, too. It was a very honest, productive meeting, and it was very on the table. There was no beating around the bush.
“He faced it great. It’s not easy sometimes talking about all of these things.”
Draisaitl said it didn’t take much time for Babcock to earn an endorsement from the team’s leadership group during that meeting.
About to enter his 13th season in Edmonton, Draisaitl knows all too well the lengths the organization has gone to try to claim another Stanley Cup. But they never had this. An ultra-demanding, ultra-competitive head coach who will dramatically shift the tone and won’t shy away from challenging Draisaitl, Connor McDavid or anyone else wearing Oilers colors.
“It was pretty clear pretty quick that he could be our guy,” Draisaitl said. “Just in what he sees, and his attitude towards us — you know, the leaders on the team that want to be coached and that want to be held accountable. I think it’s just what was needed. We had some great meetings with him and then, yeah, it just kind of took off from there.”
The risk in this equation is tied to the possibility Babcock again goes too far, the way everyone from Mitch Marner to Johan Franzen to Mike Commodore believe he did in the past.
Draisaitl is certainly under no illusions that this will be easy, and in his mind that’s entirely the point.
Every coach is going to have strengths and weaknesses, he reasons, and each collection of players needs different things at different times. Kris Knoblauch’s calm and steady demeanor had a profound impact in Edmonton following his hiring in November 2023, with the team reaching back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2024 and 2025. But the Oilers regressed from there, stumbling through last season before losing in Round 1 to the Anaheim Ducks, and that raised the stakes for a team that sees its Cup window narrowing quickly.
What came through in the meeting with Babcock is that the stakes are awfully high for him, too. Few would have predicted he’d ever get an opportunity like this one again, and yet here he is at age 63 with a chance to show that the gold medals and championships he won more than a decade ago weren’t just built on coaching methods that couldn’t translate to the next generation.
“I think he’s really eager to prove to people that he’s still a brilliant hockey mind and he still knows how to coach good hockey teams,” Draisaitl said. “It’s been a while for him. For us, I think it may be a change in tone, a change in demand a little bit. We’ve had some coaches that are very player-friendly, I would say, and at the time that was needed and that was great for us, but teams go through different phases, right?”
As for how the Oilers actually go about taking the next step, Draisaitl draws lessons from a season where they were the definition of average. Edmonton won the same number of games as it lost in 2025-26, finishing with a 41-30-11 record, and while the Oilers may not be a team with anything left to prove in the regular season, that doesn’t mean the regular season itself doesn’t matter.
“I felt like we never, for some reason, got to that game for an extended period of time where we were like, ‘This is it. This is how we can win,’” Draisaitl said. “I think that’s the biggest lesson that I take out of last year. You look at teams like Florida or our team in Edmonton (in 2024) when we went to Game 7, there was such a clear identity. It’s just so obvious, and we started that during the regular season. We played like that in the regular season, and then in the playoffs, when it gets hard, it becomes natural. It’s like a machine almost.”
In Draisaitl’s mind, the Oilers’ path to getting back to that style of play needs to involve finding ways to give players down the roster more agency in the team. Some of that comes down to coaching, but it may also require him and McDavid to take a small step back with their own ice time. They were once again among the NHL’s most-used forwards last season: McDavid was tops at 22:59 per game, with Draisaitl fourth at 21:35.
“We just need everybody to fill into some holes,” Draisaitl said. “Just need everybody to find some roles that they take really big pride in, and it’s like ‘This is what I do and I love doing that for this team.’ We all know the top of our board — like we know (Evan Bouchard is) going to run the power play and he’s going to do a good job, we know Connor, I know myself — but it’s a new coach, and there’s going to be lots of opportunity for other guys to leave a mark.
“I think that will create some competition and then hopefully make us a better team.”
As much as the Babcock experiment comes with some big unknowns, there’s a real sense of clarity about where the focus is in Edmonton with a new season on the horizon. They are aiming to be a “we before me” operation.
It shouldn’t be lost on anyone that Draisaitl and McDavid are two of the NHL’s biggest stars and most accomplished players, and they’re putting a portion of their own reputations on the line by so warmly embracing Babcock’s arrival. There’s significant onus on their shoulders to make sure it works.
“I’m really excited to learn from Babs and really excited to work with him,” Draisaitl said. “I think he’s going to really help our group. I think the timing is right. …
“I’ve been fortunate to have won some personal trophies, and that’s all nice, and I’m proud of it and all that, but at the end of the day I play a team sport, and I want to be remembered as a Stanley Cup winner.”
