- Leon Draisaitl says Mike Babcock will hold him and Connor McDavid to the same standard as everyone else
- Draisaitl admits the Oilers never figured out who they were as a group last season
- Read below for what Draisaitl said about Babcock’s plan in Munich
Leon Draisaitl is fine with getting yelled at.
Edmonton’s star forward was asked Friday in Munich about what Mike Babcock brings to Edmonton, and he went straight to accountability, telling NHL.com’s Shawn P. Roarke that the new coach will not soften the message for the two best players in the room.
“I think he’s got a very clear plan, and I think he holds guys accountable, and I think to him, it’s not about who it is when it comes to accountability, you know? Like, we’re looking to be coached. We’re looking to get better. And I sometimes deserve (to be yelled at) too, just like anyone else does. I don’t think ‘Babs’ is going to care overly much who we are in terms of that. I think sometimes that’s needed.”
Draisaitl was speaking at the NHL’s European Player Media Tour, his first real availability since the Oilers made the change behind the bench.
Babcock hasn’t run an NHL bench since Toronto fired him 23 games into the 2019-20 season. The 700 career wins and the two Olympic golds with Canada are what Draisaitl keeps pointing at, along with a 2008 Cup in Detroit won with a room full of established stars.
Take a look back at the day Edmonton introduced him:
Draisaitl said he has spoken with Babcock several times this summer and likes what he’s hearing.
“I think he’s just going to bring a different attitude and a different mentality to our group. I think it’s exactly what we need right now. I think he’s going to bring something different, a different look. Everyone’s very excited about it and looking forward to working with him.”
The reason Edmonton wanted something different is easy enough to trace. The Oilers went 41-30-11 and finished second in the Pacific, then got knocked out in six games by the Ducks in the first round after back-to-back trips to the Stanley Cup Final.
Kris Knoblauch was fired in May. Babcock replaced him weeks later.
Asked what went wrong over the course of the year, Draisaitl described a team that never settled on an identity.
“I do think that we never were able to really grab and find our game throughout 82 games, and you see it every year, the teams that are good, there’s a pattern that they create and build over 82 games. They know what their game is. And I think we kind of missed that. We never really found what we were as a group.”
His read matches the standings. Edmonton didn’t win three straight in regulation until late January and put together one five-game run in the spring, with very little in between.
Draisaitl also had his own dip. He put up 97 points in 65 games after four straight seasons of at least 106, and he was banged up by the time the Ducks series arrived.
He isn’t hiding behind it either. Draisaitl said he’d like to believe a fully healthy Edmonton beats the Ducks with its top three centers available, then added that Anaheim was the better team and deserved to move on.
Around him, the roster looks different too. Darnell Nurse was traded to San Jose on July 1 after 11 years in Edmonton, and Frederik Andersen signed the same day, 17 days after winning the Cup in Carolina.
Draisaitl spent the week in Germany as the league leaned into his home country, hanging with Bayern Munich stars and picking up an endorsement from Alphonso Davies along the way:
That trip has a sequel attached. The Oilers open the 2027 Global Series in Cologne, Draisaitl’s hometown.
Camp opens next month. That’s when we find out how the accountability talk sounds coming from Babcock instead of from Draisaitl.
