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Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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. Let's get right to it. This is Oilers Now. It's brought to you by our title sponsor, World of Spas. And so, roughly at around 1230, 1245 today, Darren Drager put out a tweet involving the fact that the Edmonton Oilers were exploring
the parameters of what would potentially make Mike Babcock available to be the next head coach. And there had been some challenges in the past specific to Columbus, and there was an NHLPA reference. So here's what sort of happens as you're listening to orders now. Bob Stauffer with you.
What happens sometimes is we sit and we go, well, let's just wait and see what transpires over the next little while. And I'm going to tell you exactly the way it is, OK? 100% Mike Babcock is the Edmonton Oilers guy, OK? From ownership to management to the players, he is the selection for the Edmonton Oilers Hockey Club. There were several different parties involved with this.
Chapter 2: What is the Edmonton Oilers' interest in Mike Babcock?
At various times, Mike Babcock has not only spoken to Edmonton Oilers owner Daryl Cates, but he has met with Daryl Cates. He has met with the Oilers key players. He has met with Harrison Cates. He's obviously met with Oilers president Jeff Jackson and Oilers general manager Stan Bowman. And he is the Oilers' choice. So let's just get that right out of any sort of possible debate.
What does this all mean? I'm going to circle back to a tweet that I put out back in May, on May the 14th. And I said, it's my belief that the Edmonton Oilers will target an experienced head coach with gravitas who's had a history of having structure and process in his team's game and who has won before. There is no coach I've personally ever met that has had more gravitas than Mike Babcock.
There is no coach that has achieved the things that Mike Babcock has achieved. My friends played for Mike Babcock as far back as Red Deer College in the late 1980s.
It's quite ironic, but when he was at Red Deer College and then Moose Jaw, and then when he won a national championship at the University of Lethbridge in 1993-94, there were several players off that Pronghorns team that were beaten 14-1 by the Alberta Golden Bears in January of 92.
And Babcock took that team in one single year and handed the University of Lethbridge the greatest championship they've ever had. I've often talked about it. That would be like winning the NCAA football championship at Savannah State. And that's pretty much when everybody knew Mike Babcock, you know, he was a special coach. He went off to Spokane.
He ended up guiding Canada to a world junior championship.
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Chapter 3: What challenges has Mike Babcock faced in his coaching career?
Then he got hired by the Ducks. He took the Ducks to a Stanley Cup championship in 03-04 into the final, where they were ultimately defeated by the New Jersey Devils. Babcock would subsequently... Go to Detroit, four consecutive 50-plus win seasons with the Red Wings. And this is at a time in which we had a salary gap. Not easy to do.
It's tough to put together and string together those sort of years. During his time, Babcock's done something that no other coach in history has done. He's won an Olympic gold medal, actually, too. Some might say, well, it's easy. Anybody could win in Canada. Wasn't that easy this year, was it? It's hard to win. He's won two gold medals in 10 and 14 as head coach of Team Canada.
He's won world hockey championships. He's won the World Cup, okay, for Canada. He's won at every level. And the Edmonton Oilers do not have shy players, okay? The Edmonton Oilers are in a win-now mode, and they don't just want to win for one more year. They want to win for perpetuity here over the next several years.
And they need to have a coach that has shown the ability to win and the ability to put structure and process in a team's game and the ability to have the top players deal with the fact that the best want to be led. Connor McDavid, Leon Dreisaitl, they want to win. They want to win more desperately than anybody you could possibly imagine. And that stems from ownership to management to the players.
Chapter 4: Why is Mike Babcock considered the top choice for the Oilers?
So when this process started, I recall Pierre Lebrun coming on the show and Darren Drager put out and said that Mike Babcock was happy in retirement. And at that time, it appeared as though Bruce Cassidy, after Chris Knobloch was fired, that Bruce Cassidy would be... the best coach available.
And we all know the situations, the Vegas Golden Knights, to this point, have not allowed any teams to go ahead and interview Bruce Cassidy. I will tell you that the Oilers interviewed multiple coaches for this position. Who wouldn't want to come into Edmonton, into perhaps what many consider to be, you know, you look at Green Bay in the NFL.
Well, Edmonton's Green Bay times 10 when it comes to the National Hockey League because there's a different sort of support in our market that allows us to compete. And part of it is the Oilers have an amazing fan base, and we know that. And we have, even though it's a little down at times, a fairly thriving economy. And the Oilers, hey. They got the juice in this city.
There's never been any debate about it. So it's a special place. Oh, and you get to coach two of the best players. I might argue three, now that Evan Bouchard has taken the big step forward. It is a coveted position. Jeff Jackson and Stan Bowman, they interviewed multiple people. We've heard names out there.
Craig Berube, Peter Laviolette, who today was officially hired by Ken Holland and the Los Angeles Kings. And immediately after hearing... that we were going to have a situation where Laviolette was going to go to L.A. That's when Draeger's report came out on the Oilers' interest in Mike Babcock. It's more than interest. I'm here to tell you. He's their guy. He's their choice.
You can think whatever you want. You can text us on the Ashley Fine Floors text line at 780-451-8800. You don't have to agree with it. You don't have to like it. But we're going to tell you the way it is. From the top down, Babcock's their guy. It's that simple. He's going to be assuming there's no complications carrying forward here at the NHL.
Mike Babcock will be the next head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. It's inevitable. And I will tell you. I've had the privilege of having an animated conversation or two over the years with Mike. I might even have won maybe a quarter of one of those conversations, right? He is an interesting guy, okay? He has a commanding presence.
I would suggest that we will probably see Babcock bring in, assuming this all gets resolved, pushed forward and it's all good, we will probably see Mike Babcock add a veteran NHL assistant coach that's likely been a head coach at some point in the NHL to his staff. Nobody, nobody has the coaching tree that Mike Babcock has in the NHL. There are seven guys that have served
as assistants under Mike Babcock that have gone on to be National Hockey League head coaches. When the Edmonton Oilers, we got Craig McTavish, Mac T on Mondays coming up at 5 o'clock. One of the greatest upsets in the history of the NHL was when the Oilers beat the Red Wings in 06. On that Red Wing staff, Paul McLean, later head coach, Ottawa Senators.
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Chapter 5: What has Mike Babcock achieved in his coaching career?
and Detroit. Jay Woodcroft was the video coach on that staff, okay? Jay, of course, as we know, later the head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. Some of the other coaches that spent time with Mike Babcock. Well, off the top of my head, Bill Peters. who replaced Babcock and went to Spokane, was also at the University of Lethbridge.
Bill Peters, who had stints with both the Carolina Hurricanes and the Calgary Flames. Jim Hiller, right? Jeff Blaschel and DJ Smith. Seven guys. that Babcock had underneath him as his assistants later became NHL head coaches. You know what that shows? That shows a head coach that's not afraid to hire good people because he wants to win.
So, again, we could come on the air and say, well, you know, these reports, they're early, they're premature. I'm here to tell you. It's going to be Mike Babcock. He's going to be the next head coach of the Edmonton Oilers. And from an organizational perspective, the Oilers are all in on Mike Babcock. You know, at times, George Carlin, the great comedian, used to talk about soft language.
And we don't want to offend anybody. And we don't want to, no, we're going to give you hard language. This is the way it is. You don't have to agree with it. And some of you who likely weren't in the room or purely basing your opinion on hearsay, unless you happen to be former NHL players.
And even then, you have to factor in what's the timing like? What's the sequencing like? Where's the player at in his career? There are players that have grown and exceeded expectations under Mike Babcock. Zach Hyman, nobody ever thought he was going to turn out to be the player he turned out to be.
It was a fifth-round draft choice of the Florida Panthers back in 2010 who became a 50-goal scorer at the Edmonton Oilers.
Connor Brown, no one thought Connor Brown would turn out to be a multiple-time 20-goal scorer in his NHL career. Those players wanted to be pushed. They wanted to be led. I'm going to tell you this right now. Babcock coaches basically a modified zone defense. His teams have identity, each of the lines. He tries to balance out the minutes. He looks to build a team.
And he's had success at every single level. Again, I could sit here and tell you, well, let's just not get too far ahead of ourselves. The signs are clearly pointing, and Babcock was their guy. And that's all you need to know. Well, get your thoughts. You can text us on the Ashley Fine Floors text line at 780-451-8800.
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