Connor McDavid isn’t pretending the Edmonton Oilers have one simple answer waiting for them this season. The question of whether he and Leon Draisaitl should be stapled together or spread across separate lines has followed this team for years, and with new head coach Mike Babcock stepping in, it’s right back in the spotlight.
McDavid’s message, though, was less about where he fits and more about how the whole group functions. When asked about his preference, he kept coming back to the same idea: the Oilers need more stability.
“I think it’s just going to move in and out,” McDavid said. “I think it always kind of shifts throughout the year. You know how it goes.”
He expanded on that point, making it clear that while the Oilers know lineups can change with the moment, they’d like a little more predictability this time around.
“I think it always shifts throughout the year, you know how it goes,” McDavid elaborated. “I think this year we would like a little bit more stability, if that’s possible. But that being said, we understand that it’s always kind of a moving target throughout the year, and different situations require different lineups and different formations.”
That comment lands with extra weight because of how often Edmonton’s lines seemed to shuffle under Kris Knoblauch, especially last season. McDavid didn’t point fingers, but he made it obvious the constant movement has been a source of frustration.
“I think we’ve asked for that for a long time, is some consistency throughout the lines, building chemistry,” McDavid said. “It’s not easy to just jump around from spot to spot, guys switching positions, guys playing up the lineup, down the lineup, it’s hard.
Mentally it’s hard, it’s hard to understand what your job is. I think we’re looking for some consistency throughout the lineup in terms of where guys are playing.”
As for the McDavid-Draisaitl question itself, he wasn’t interested in playing coach. That decision, in his view, belongs to Babcock.
“That’s a coaching question,” McDavid responded when asked again about playing with Draisaitl. “My job is to play and lead and be the player that I am, do whatever’s asked of me. That’s my job.”
The bigger picture, of course, is the same one hanging over the Oilers every season: win the Stanley Cup. McDavid said the room is aligned around that goal, and he believes the organization brought in a coach who matches that mindset.
“Guys are all in here. I don’t know how else to say it,” McDavid explained.
“Guys have really put their egos aside and are here to win. That’s what we want, and we want a coach that matches our intensity and our energy and we feel that Babs does that.”
That’s where the pressure sits now. Edmonton has spent years chasing the same finish line, and McDavid and Draisaitl aren’t getting any younger. Babcock’s first major test will be sorting out the lineup puzzle in a way that gives the Oilers the consistency McDavid says they need.
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