According to a team announcement, Mike Babcock has been named as the Edmonton Oilers’ 19th head coach in team history.
Babcock, 63, has a 700-418-183 regular-season coaching record over 17 NHL seasons and 1,301 games. Through another 164 games in 14 postseason appearances, he ranks 10th all-time in wins with a 90-74 record.
A few days ago, the NHL finished its investigation into any wrongdoing during Babcock’s time with the Blue Jackets. According to an announcement, Babcock has been cleared to join the Oilers, saying, “The League has completed its review of Mike Babcock’s tenure in Columbus, and of certain alleged conduct associated therewith. Our investigation has concluded that, even in a light least favorable to Mr. Babcock, there is no current basis to restrict his employment in the League.”
His coaching successes are highlighted by his tenure with the Mighty Ducks, leading them to a 40-27-15 regular season record and a 15-6 postseason run to claim a Western Conference title, and the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup win in 2008. He’s also won an Olympic gold medal twice (2010, 2014), an IIHF World Championship (2004), and a World Cup of Hockey title (2016). He is the only coach in hockey history to have won all four of those triumphs.
Despite his tremendous success, Babcock has had many blemishes in his time with the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Columbus Blue Jackets, thanks to multiple scandals.
A major part of this began during his time with the Red Wings. In 2019, former Red Wing Johan Franzen called Babcock “the worst person I’ve ever met” in an interview with Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. Veteran defenseman Chris Chelios added to that saying Babcock verbally abused Franzen to the point of the latter suffering a nervous breakdown. Along with this, during the 2010-11 season, Babcock made Mike Modano a healthy scratch on multiple occasions at the end of the season, causing the legend to finish one game shy of 1,500 games played.
Then there is the Mitch Marner incident. A year into an eight-year, $50M contract with the Maple Leafs, Babcock asked Marner, who was a rookie at the time, to rank his teammates from first to last in work ethic, putting Marner in a weird position just days into his pro career. The details of this incident didn’t come out until Babcock was fired by the Maple Leafs in 2019.
Then, before he coached a single game for the Columbus Blue Jackets, it was revealed on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast by host Paul Bissonnette that Babcock had approached multiple players, including captain Boone Jenner, asking them to share personal photos and displaying them for the rest of the team to see on certain occasions. Babcock resigned from his role a few days later.
There was curiosity around how this would impact the team’s composition, especially the future of Connor McDavid. According to TSN’s Ryan Rishaug, Babcock already met with Edmonton’s leaders in the locker room. Per Rishaug, the players gave the Oilers’ front office their full support to hire Babcock earlier in June.