- Connor McDavid says Oilers leadership will step in if Mike Babcock goes too far with a teammate
- The captain described the pre-hire meetings as both sides pressing each other
- Read below for McDavid’s full comments and what he wants from his new coach
Connor McDavid is not pretending the Mike Babcock hire came with no conditions attached.
The Oilers captain sat down with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas and was asked directly whether Edmonton’s players had talked about stepping in if Babcock ever went too far with someone in the room. He did not dodge it.
“Babs is there to be Babs and to coach the way that he sees fit. We’re also a team and teammates who care about each other. If there’s an area or a place where we have to step in, of course we’re going to do that. But we would do that with any coach. It doesn’t matter who it is.”
Watch the full sit-down:
Babcock has not run an NHL bench for a regular season game since Toronto fired him in November 2019. His one attempt at a comeback ended in September 2023, when he resigned in Columbus before coaching a single game there, after asking players to show him photos from their phones.
His history goes back further than that. Johan Franzen once called him “the worst person I have ever met,” and in Toronto he had a rookie Mitch Marner rank his teammates by work ethic, then shared the list with the room.
McDavid was also asked how the conversations went before Edmonton agreed to the hire, and he described something closer to a mutual interview.
“I think both sides were hard on each other. We pressed him on some things and he pressed us on things. It was pretty clear that he was content with where his life was at, and he wanted to make sure that this is what we really wanted.”
The captain went a step further and said he wants Babcock’s attention pointed at him first.
“I want to be coached. I do. There are areas of the game that I have figured out, and they come naturally and easy to me. There are other areas of the game that I need some help with. And I need to be coached and we need to be organized. And I know Babs will do that.”
Edmonton opened camp this week with Babcock running practice for the first time, and he has already put McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on the same line. Take a look at him coaching the two of them:
Draisaitl was asked about his own early impressions of the new coach and landed in a similar spot:
Last season ended with a second-place Pacific finish and a six-game first-round exit to Anaheim, with McDavid leading the league at 138 points. Babcock signed for three years with a club option, and his captain has already told him where the line sits.
