Rick Dollywall

They're in the Stanley Cup final.

They denied permission to speak with Bruce Cassidy.

This caused the Oilers to look at alternatives, one of them being Mike Babcock.

And here we are.

I mean, it's...

If they're not prepared for this, if there's any admission of, yeah, we didn't know about this other stuff, and they have to say, we're no longer interested in Mike Babcock, first of all, what a waste of time.

And the clock is ticking.

You know, most teams are trying to figure out their coaching situations.

What a signal to the players that...

First of all, their GM or ownership would go down this road without properly advising the players.

But also, it leads me to another question.

Should the Oilers players be so involved in this search?

It's a fair question.

I mean, I guess they got to give McDavid whatever he asked for.

But we've all heard about how involved the players are in the search, including speaking with Mike Babcock and then saying, okay, yeah, he's our guy.

But McDavid is going to wear some of this, too, if it goes sideways.

It's a bit... I'm starting to get the Quinn Hughes vibes going.

In Edmonton, the way every decision revolves around the star player on the Oilers and this notion that, God, we're desperate to keep him.

We have to keep Connor McDavid.

Hour one of the podcast.