Babcock’s return to the NHL highlights off-season coaching changes

Babcock’s return to the NHL highlights off-season coaching changes STEPHEN WHYNO THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PUBLISHED 35 MINUTES AGO Open this photo in gallery: Head Coach Mike Babcock gives instruction during the Edmonton Oilers NHL training camp at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Ulan JOHN ULAN/THE CANADIAN PRESS COMMENTS SHARE SAVE FOR LATER Listen to this article Learn more about audio Log in or create a free account to listen to this article. Mike Babcock last coached an NHL game in November 2019. His biggest accomplishments in the sport so far were guiding Canada to gold at the Olympics in 2010 and 2014 and the Detroit Red Wings to the Stanley Cup in 2008. All these years later, the Edmonton Oilers are turning to Babcock to be the person to get Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl the championship that has eluded two of the best hockey players in the world for more than a decade. Babcock, 63, is back in the league three years since taking over the Columbus Blue Jackets and resigning before training camp when his requests for personal photos from players in a bonding effort drew criticism as too invasive. He is old school, and that is what the Oilers wanted. “He’s bringing experience and accountability,” Oilers CEO of hockey operations Jeff Jackson said this summer. “That’s what we wanted on the organizational management side, and that’s what our players wanted – our leadership group – so it all aligned.” Edmonton is among the Cup favourites largely because of McDavid and Draisaitl. After reaching the final in 2024 and ‘25, losing to Florida each time, getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs this past spring spelled the end of Kris Knobaluch’s time behind the bench. Knoblauch is calm and steadfast and got the ship going in the right direction when he replaced Jay Woodcroft in November 2023. But it was his first job in the NHL, and Babcock has tons of experience, with 700 regular season wins and 90 more in the playoffs. Sidney Crosby, who played for Babcock for those back-to-back Olympic championships, recalled an organized coach who knew what he was doing. “He was really good at kind of painting a clear picture of how he wanted us to play, what guys’ jobs were,” Crosby said. “Really good bench management when it came to matching lines and just a feel for if certain lines were going or certain guys were going: Putting the right guys together, timeouts, just feel for the game.” Babcock…