In a controversial hire, the Edmonton Oilers have named Mike Babcock as their next coach following an NHL investigation into his resignation from the Columbus Blue Jackets. Babcock, known as much for his off-ice treatment of players as winning, will take over an Oilers team looking to capitalize on its championship window with Connor McDavid and Draisaitl in their prime.
Babcock does have an impressive resume by anyone's standard. He led the Detroit Red Wings to their last Stanley Cup in 2008, and he has two more Stanley Cup Final appearances under his belt -- one in 2003 with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and another with the Red Wings in 2009. Babcock also led Canada to back-to-back Olympic gold medals at the 2010 and 2014 Olympics.
In his 17 seasons as a coach, which also includes a five-year stint with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Babcock has compiled an impressive record of 700-418-19 with a career mark of 67-56 in the postseason.
On paper, Babcock looks no different than any other recycled NHL coach. In fact, he looks better than Peter Laviolette and Jim Hiller, who just found new jobs in this year's cycle. What separates Babcock is that it's nearly impossible to find another coach who has been so roundly and publicly blasted by former players.
Over the years, Babcock has been accused of everything from intentionally denying an NHL legend his 1,500th game to berating a player so badly that it impacted his mental health for the rest of his career. With Babcock's name back in the news cycle recently, ex-players Mike Commodore and Daniel Winnik have referred to him as a "bully."
Babcock has a reputation as an old school coach with a penchant for crossing the line. Let's take a look at how he earned that reputaion, and why hiring him could be another mistake by the Oilers.
Mike Babcock timeline
2002-03 | Mighty Ducks | Played "mind games" with Jason York
It didn't take long for Babcock to start rubbing players the wrong way in the NHL. In his first training camp after being hired by the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Babcock force defenseman Jason York a couple of fellow veterans to train with the AHL team on a separate sheet of ice, despite York coming off a productive 2001-02 campaign.
York said he confronted Babcock about it, but the rookie coach insisted that he was sending a message to the rest of the team and York would be back with the NHL cub soon.
"You can be sent down to the minors," York said on the "Coming In Hot" podcast. "It's not some evil thing. You can be sent home. I stuck up for myself. I went into his office -- and this is what I don't like -- he lied to my face. He said, 'Yorkie, don't worry about it. The guys respect you. I need to get their attention, so I'm just doing this to make sure that everyone knows there's gonna be change. You're one of my guys. You're gonna be in the top four. Don't worry about it.'"
York never played a game with Anaheim that season.
Instead, he spent four games with the AHL's Cincinnati Mighty Ducks before the Nashville Predators acquired him via trade. Later in life, York once again asked Babcock why he did it. This time, the former Anaheim coach pinned the blame on former general manager Bryan Murray.
"I confronted (Babcock) on that years later, and he blamed Bryan Murray," York said. "Then I sat down with Bryan about it, and he said it was all Babs' idea. I believe Bryan.
"Just be honest. Don't lie. That's what players want. Don't bull---- me. Don't try these stupid mind games. That's why players end up not liking a guy."
2005-15 | Red Wings | Alleged mistreatment of Johan Franzen
One of the worst accusations levied against Babcock was his mistreatment of former Red Wings forward Johan Franzen, who played under the coach for a decade in Detroit. After his career, Franzen told a Swedish news outlet that he was recovering from PTSD due to the trauma that playing for Babcock caused him.
"Today I have gotten rid of my PTSD, which I didn't even know I had for seven years," Franzen told Vetlanda-Posten. "All of that was caused by a coach. He woke up one day and decided to hate me and to do everything to put me down. To this day, I don't understand why."
Franzen said their was one instance, which occurred during a playoff series against the Predators, that left him especially shaken. Franzen accused Babcock of giving him a particularly vile lashing on the bench.
"I get the shivers when I think about it," Franzen said. "That incident occurred against Nashville in the playoffs. It was coarse, nasty and shocking. But that was just one out of a hundred things he did. The tip of the iceberg."
There were plenty of witnesses to Babcock's treatment of Franzen, and one of them was Hall of Fame defenseman Chris Chelios, who played under Babcock from 2005-09. In 2023, Chelios told the "Spittin' Chiclets" podcast that what Babcock did to Franzen crossed over into verbal abuse.
"Some of the things he said to him on the bench, I don't know what he said to him behind closed doors one-on-one, but he blatantly verbally assaulted him during the game on the bench," Chelios said.
2010-2011 | Red Wings | Denied Mike Modano 1,500 games
In another infamous story out of Detroit, Babcock denied Hall of Fame forward Mike Modano the chance to join elite company with his 1,500th game. Late in the 2010-11 season, with the Red Wings comfortably in the playoffs, Babcock chose to scratch Modano for a game against the Minnesota Wild. That guaranteed Modano would end his carer sitting on 1,499 games.
Modano said that once other veteran players on the team found out, they weren't pleased with Babcock, although tension had already brewing between the coach and the players.
"No one really knew until they got to the game and saw what was happening," Modano told the "Cam and Strick Podcast". "And then word spread through the locker room, you know, 'He would have got 1,500 the next game,' so Nick [Lidstrom] was a little upset. Kenny Holland didn't know about it actually until he got to the game. He says to this day he probably would have stepped in and told Mike, 'We need to have him get to this milestone.' So yeah, the older guys were frustrated, and I think some of them were already frustrated with Mike at the time way before that. They were all feeling for me at the time."
2016-17 | Maple Leafs | Mitch Marner list scandal
In his second season as coach of the Maple Leafs, Babock instructed a rookie Marner to rank each one of his teammates from hardest-working to least-hardest-working, with the implication the list would remain between the two of them. Babcock later informed certain other players about their place on the list.
"I'd say it was just surprising," Marner said in 2019, per NBC Sports. "It was so long ago now, honestly I really kind of forgot about it until the report came out. It's over with now and done with. I was lucky enough the guys that were there with me, none of them took it to heart and they knew it wasn't up to me."
Former Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri confirmed the story in his book "Dreamer: My Life on the Edge." Kadri said the Toronto players quickly forgave Marner and laid the blame squarely at the feet of Babcock.
"What a bull---- position to put a player in, let alone a rookie," Kadri wrote. "It's not as though Babs was asking a veteran who could push back and say, 'F--- you, I'm not doing that.' Mitch obliged, feeling pressured — forced, really — to to do what Babs wanted."
2023 | Blue Jackets | Resigns without coaching a game
When his Maple Leafs tenure amidst a poor start in 2019, Babcock was out of the NHL for nearly four years until the Blue Jackets hired him in the summer of 2023. However, Babcock wouldn't even coach a single preseason before he resigned on the heels of another scanal.
In September of that year, Paul Bissonnette of the "Spittin' Chiclets" podcast accused Babcock of inviting players into his office or home and asking them to go through their camera roll in order to get a better sense of their character. In statements, Babcock and Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner denied the accusations, saying that Bissonnette and co-host Ryan Whitney mischaracterized those interactions.
Following an NHLPA investigation, Babcock announced his resignation from the Blue Jackets on Sept. 18, saying that the saga had become too much of a "distraction" right before the regular season.
Before the Oilers hired Babcock, the NHL conducted its own investigation into this incident and found that there was "no current basis to restrict his employment in the League."
The Oilers' high-risk gamble
Given the disaster that was the 2025-26 season, it's understandable that the Oilers' best players would want a firmer hand at the helm. To their credit, the Oilers did want to pursue Bruce Cassidy for that role but weren't granted permission by the Vegas Golden Knights.
Still, the backup plan being Babcock is puzzling.
If the Oilers are going to hire a coach with enough baggage to fill the cargo hold of a 747, he better be able to win big. Babcock has all the shiny things every coach wants on his mantle, but those trophies are covered in dust by now.
Since 2009, when Babcock and the Red Wings lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in the Stanley Cup Final, none of his teams have advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs. In fact, he hasn't even seen the second round since 2013, when he notched his last playoff series win.
Since 2014, Babcock has a postseason record of 12-20, and his last three full seasons in Toronto were punctuated by playoff disappointment. His two successors in Toronto -- Sheldon Keefe and Craig Berube -- at least cleared that first-round hurdle once.
Now, Babcock has been out of the NHL for seven years. A coach who clearly had strained relationships players throughout his career hasn't seen the inside of a locker room since Nov. 19, 2019. Has the time away forced Babcock to change his approach at the age of 63? Maybe, but couldn't the same have been said when he got the Blue Jackets job in 2023?
The Oilers are at a crossroads, and they have no choice but to nail this coaching hire. Connor McDavid has two years left on his contract, and he's slated to hit free agency in the summer of 2028. If McDavid decides he wants out, I find it hard to believe that Leon Drasaitl will be content to play out the remainder his contract in Edmonton alone.
If that comes to pass, the Oilers will essentially be starting from scratch, having wasted four No. 1 overall picks since 2010.
Those stakes mean that McDavid and Draisaitl have likely been consulted about Babcock and signed off on the hire. That's better than if they hadn't been consulted at all, but it doesn't eliminate the risk of this blowing up in the team's face. According to The Daily Faceoff, at least one player agent has said his clients aren't too thrilled about the prospect of playing for Babcock.
Response via text from an NHL player agent when I asked about Oilers coaching rumour… “The opportunity to play with McDavid or Draisaitl is diminished with the potential to be coached by Babcock. It is a valid concern voiced to me by a few of my clients.”
— Jason Gregor (@JasonGregor) June 15, 2026
Despite all that, maybe there is a world where this hire works out on the ice. By all accounts, Babcock is a master on the whiteboard. Combine that with a core that includes McDavid, Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, and it's possible the end result is a Stanley Cup.
If it isn't, all the Oilers will have left is the destruction that Babcock leaves behind everywhere he goes.
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