Frank Seravalli

So unless the PA decides to fight this, which I don't see happening, the league, I'm sure, appreciated that Mike Babcock was willing to get out of the way last time and resign so that it didn't become an even bigger story than it was.

And by the way, he did get paid.

They reached a settlement.

He never coached the game, but got paid a chunk of his contract to do so and leave.

um so yes uh i'd imagine that he would then indeed become the next head coach of the edmonton oilers and i think my one overarching question is this and i understand again we've talked about this ad nauseum what the requirements were for this role someone who's experienced and has won before and we also talked about how short that list got bruce cassidy

right now contractually unavailable then you've got peter laviolette now off the board and if it wasn't la then it might have been toronto and the oilers talked to him i believe on multiple occasions so i would have called him a finalist for this job as well then you've got

Craig Berube, who they interviewed.

You've got Barry Trotz, who's retiring as GM in Nashville.

And then Mike Babcock.

That's it.

It's a short list.

In terms of the timing, Frank, I'm just going to... Wait a second.

Wait a second.

Wait, wait, wait.

Here's my question for you.

Mike Babcock has not coached in the NHL since 2020.

The fourth longest tenured head coach, sorry, I think it's the 10th longest head coach, 10 tenured head coach in this league has been employed since 2024.

That means that nearly 30 out of 32 jobs.

And in fact, I would think that an entirely new franchise came in and would have had a crack to hire him.

Almost all of these jobs have turned over except Jared Bednar and John Cooper and maybe someone else.