Ayden Continues the show (7/14/26)

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Oilers NOW with Bob Stauffer 20 min 4 speakers 5 chapters transcribed 2 months ago

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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Who is filling in and what’s the episode’s opening focus on NHL athlete covers?

Brendan Escott 0:00

Hey, it's Bob Stauffer. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to Oilers Now ad-free on Amazon Music, included with Prime.

Aiden Ganim 0:09

Aidan Ganim filling in for Bob Stauffer, and we're having a conversation here about NHL athlete covers. Macklin Celebrini being named as the cover athlete for NHL 27. Man, that feels like such a weird thing. NHL 17, it feels like came out three years ago, but no, it was 10 years ago. That is just an absolute shock to the system. Hey, we had a conversation with Bryn Griffiths at 5.05, and we just kind of talked about the Oilers offseason as a whole and what kind of moves really could work well for this Edmonton Oilers squad. And one of the most polarizing ones is the addition of Mike Babcock. A lot of people split down the middle when it comes to oil country, whether this guy is the right guy or isn't.

Aiden Ganim 0:51

And I want to make sure that it's clear, and I feel like a lot of people know this already, but the players were involved in the meetings. They talked to Babcock. They made sure that the guy that they were putting their faith in was the right guy. Zach Hyman was one of those guys.

Why is Macklin Celebrini being named NHL 27 cover athlete seen as surprising?

Aiden Ganim 1:06

He had a conversation with Bob just a little while ago, and he spoke about what Mike Babcock can bring to a team. Zach Hyman is a workhorse, and he puts his nose to the grindstone every single night. He's just... just such a hard worker with this Edmonton Oilers squad. And he often gets called a workhorse for it. But he played for Babcock in Toronto with the Maple Leafs. And if you look at Hyman's kind of play style, that is the perfect fit for a Mike Babcock run team. And he had a lot of nice things to say about him.

Zach Hyman 1:36

Yeah, you did. And like I said, I had a lot of experience. I think people forget that my first year in Toronto, we had 10 rookies my first full season, give or take, that were in and out. And if you look at the rookies on that team that have carved out long NHL careers, it's largely in part due to the foundation that he instilled and the structure that he instilled in us. Guys like me, Connor Brown, Cappy, obviously you have bigger players like Austin, Willie, Mitch, but

How did the Oilers’ offseason conversation introduce Mike Babcock as a polarizing hire?

Zach Hyman 2:05

we all weren't the players we are today we were rookies coming into the league and and he took us um and we made the playoffs and we played against the president's trophy washington capitals team and we almost beat them we lost in six but that's not an easy thing to do and i think for our young guys i mean i think there's a lot of things being said about how the the older guys will be protected in this but i really do think that There's a lot of roles that are going to be up for grabs, important roles throughout the lineup, and players can really grow their game. And I'm excited. I'm excited about the opportunity. I'm excited about the opportunity for guys lower in the lineup to play more and to really grab hold of a role and run with it.

Zach Hyman 2:50

And I think that he does a really good job in teaching. I think he's, first and foremost, a very good teacher, And when you're out on the ice, there's no gray. It's very black and white. You know exactly what you need to do. You know exactly what your role is. You know exactly how you need to impact the game. And it's up to you to just go out there and execute and not think about all the other things. And I think that kind of simplicity really helps. guys or in the lineup in my first couple years I just needed the ability to just go out there and work and just know what I had to do and to work and let the rest of the creativity aspect of the game kind of fall into place and I think he's able to provide that structure and

Zach Hyman 3:31

and that accountability from top to bottom.

Aiden Ganim 3:34

And I think it's really going to be good for our group. Again, as I mentioned before, Hyman was heavily involved in the process of hiring Mike Babcock, and he had some comments when he talked to Bob about that as well.

Zach Hyman 3:45

Yeah, I thought that the process was awesome. We have a phenomenal owner, obviously. Daryl is incredible. He's involved, he's passionate, he wants to win more than anybody, and his whole family, Harrison included.