Before the Edmonton Oilers ever put Mike Babcock behind their bench, Leon Draisaitl and the rest of the team’s leadership group had already helped decide the direction the franchise was taking.
That process started with a blunt, open-ended meeting this summer, one Draisaitl described as completely direct. Nothing was off the table, and the conversation covered exactly the kind of questions Babcock knew were coming, given the scrutiny around his long absence from an NHL bench and the allegations that he mistreated players, along with his short and unsuccessful stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023.
“We asked all of the hard questions that media would probably ask him, too,” Draisaitl told The Athletic during the NHL’s European Player Media Tour. “He had some very honest feedback on us, too.
It was a very honest, productive meeting, and it was very on the table. There was no beating around the bush.
“He faced it great. It’s not easy sometimes talking about all of these things.”
For Draisaitl, that meeting didn’t drag on for long before the Oilers’ leadership group was convinced Babcock could be the right fit. Entering his 13th season in Edmonton, Draisaitl has seen the organization try plenty of different ways to get back to the Stanley Cup. What this coach brings, in his view, is something the Oilers have not had: a demanding voice willing to push him, Connor McDavid and everyone else in the room.
“It was pretty clear pretty quick that he could be our guy,” Draisaitl said. “Just in what he sees, and his attitude towards us - you know, the leaders on the team that want to be coached and that want to be held accountable.
I think it’s just what was needed. We had some great meetings with him and then, yeah, it just kind of took off from there.”
That doesn’t erase the obvious risk. The concern with Babcock has always been whether he can keep the edge without going too far, the way players such as Mitch Marner, Johan Franzen and Mike Commodore have believed he did in the past.
Draisaitl isn’t pretending that part doesn’t exist. Instead, he sees the challenge as part of the point.
Every coach has a different lane, he said, and teams change with the moment. Kris Knoblauch’s steady approach mattered when he arrived in November 2023, and Edmonton rode that to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2024 and 2025.
But the Oilers slipped last season, finished 41-30-11, and then lost in Round 1 to the Anaheim Ducks. With their window tightening, the pressure on the group has only grown.
Draisaitl also believes the pressure cuts both ways. Babcock, at 63, is getting another major chance after years away from the NHL spotlight, and the Oilers’ star thinks that matters.
“I think he’s really eager to prove to people that he’s still a brilliant hockey mind and he still knows how to coach good hockey teams,” Draisaitl said. “It’s been a while for him.
For us, I think it may be a change in tone, a change in demand a little bit. We’ve had some coaches that are very player-friendly, I would say, and at the time that was needed and that was great for us, but teams go through different phases, right?”
The biggest lesson Draisaitl took from last season was not just about results, but identity. He said Edmonton never found the version of itself that could be repeated night after night. That, more than anything, separated the Oilers from teams he pointed to as models.
“I felt like we never, for some reason, got to that game for an extended period of time where we were like, ‘This is it. This is how we can win,'” Draisaitl said.
“I think that’s the biggest lesson that I take out of last year. You look at teams like Florida or our team in Edmonton (in 2024) when we went to Game 7, there was such a clear identity.
It’s just so obvious, and we started that during the regular season. We played like that in the regular season, and then in the playoffs, when it gets hard, it becomes natural.
It’s like a machine almost.”
He sees the answer as a broader buy-in across the roster. That means more responsibility for players lower on the depth chart, and maybe even a little less for the stars. McDavid led all NHL forwards in ice time last season at 22:59 per game, while Draisaitl was fourth at 21:35.
“We just need everybody to fill into some holes,” Draisaitl said. “Just need everybody to find some roles that they take really big pride in, and it’s like ‘This is what I do and I love doing that for this team.’ We all know the top of our board - like we know (Evan Bouchard is) going to run the power play and he’s going to do a good job, we know Connor, I know myself - but it’s a new coach, and there’s going to be lots of opportunity for other guys to leave a mark.
“I think that will create some competition and then hopefully make us a better team.”
That is the version of the Oilers Draisaitl is buying into now: more accountability, more competition, and less room for comfort. He knows the spotlight is on the stars as much as the new coach, and he’s willing to attach his own name to the gamble.
“I’m really excited to learn from Babs and really excited to work with him,” Draisaitl said. “I think he’s going to really help our group.
I think the timing is right. …
“I’ve been fortunate to have won some personal trophies, and that’s all nice, and I’m proud of it and all that, but at the end of the day I play a team sport, and I want to be remembered as a Stanley Cup winner.”
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