The Edmonton Oilers announced Tuesday that Mike Babcock will serve as their new head coach, bringing back the controversial figure after the NHL wrapped up an investigation last week and found nothing that would bar him from returning to the league.
Babcock steps into the role tasked with finally delivering a Stanley Cup to star players Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, two of the game’s elite talents who have spent a decade chasing that championship without success.
At 63 years old, Babcock does bring proven championship credentials. He led Detroit to a Stanley Cup title in 2008, made two additional trips to the final — with Anaheim in 2003 and again with the Red Wings in 2009, when they fell to Pittsburgh — and coached Canada to back-to-back Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014.
But his record also comes with significant controversy.
Babcock took the Columbus Blue Jackets head coaching job on July 1, 2023, only to resign before training camp that September without ever coaching a single game. His departure came amid criticism over his practice of asking players to share personal photos as a way of getting acquainted — a move many viewed as an invasion of privacy.
When reports surfaced that Edmonton was eyeing Babcock for the position, the NHL Players’ Association requested that the league take a closer look at what transpired in Columbus three years ago. After completing that review, the NHL issued a statement saying it found nothing that would prevent a team from employing him.
Babcock has not been behind an NHL bench since Toronto let him go 23 games into the 2019-20 season.
Though once regarded as among the best coaches in the sport, a number of former players have come forward over the years to speak out against his methods, which some characterize as outright bullying.
Following his dismissal from Toronto, a report emerged that Babcock had asked forward Mitch Marner to rank his teammates from hardest- to least-hardest working — and then revealed that list to the rest of the locker room. Former Detroit Red Wings player Johan Franzen told a Swedish media outlet that Babcock was the worst person he had ever encountered and that there was a period when he was terrified to go to the arena.
Retired player and long-time Babcock critic Mike Commodore reignited his opposition this spring when word of the potential hiring surfaced.
“I don’t want to hear another word about how important mental health is for us when you literally just paved the way, cleared the way for Mike Babcock to get another opportunity in the NHL and put him in another position of power where he can abuse people,” Commodore said on the “Clearing the Crease” podcast.
Daniel Winnik, who played under Babcock during the 2015-16 season with Toronto, also weighed in last week, calling him “the only guy that’s ever made me hate hockey.”
“I just hated coming to the rink,” Winnik said on TSN 1050 radio in Toronto on Thursday. “He’s just a bully.”
The Oilers’ path to Babcock was shaped partly by a failed attempt to hire another coach. Edmonton sought permission to interview Bruce Cassidy, who guided Vegas to the Stanley Cup in 2023, but the Golden Knights — who dismissed Cassidy on March 30 with eight games remaining in the regular season — refused, as he remains under contract for one more year. News of that pursuit became public while Kris Knoblauch, the coach who led Edmonton to back-to-back Stanley Cup Final appearances in 2024 and 2025, was still employed. Knoblauch was let go just days afterward.
That chain of events ultimately brought the organization to Babcock, who ranks 12th in NHL history with 700 regular season wins and 10th with 90 playoff victories.
