Mike Babcock’s first look at the Oilers has already sparked a few eyebrow-raising ideas, and the biggest one may be where Connor McDavid ends up lining up.
There are already whispers that McDavid and Leon Draisaitl will skate together at five-on-five in 2026-27, along with the suggestion that Josh Brown could be part of the regular rotation that season. Taken at face value, those are just words. But they do hint at how Babcock sees the team from a distance, and they also underline how little he knows this roster right now.
That unfamiliarity is the real storyline. The big question for Oilers fans is how quickly Babcock can get his arms around the group, because that answer could shape everything that follows. Coaches can get locked in, and once they decide what a player is, that opinion tends to stick.
There’s a reason some people are drawing comparisons to the year Edmonton hired Pat Quinn. The 2026-27 season has been described as carrying the same feel, even though Babcock is expected to be more successful than Quinn was. The common thread is the gap between coaching jobs and the sense that a coach may not be arriving with a fully current read on the team.
Quinn’s tenure included a memorable misfire in 2009-10, when he ran J-F Jacques with Shawn Horcoff and Ales Hemsky. That trio logged 69 minutes together and outscored opponents 4-3, but the underlying numbers were ugly: shot share, Corsi and expected goals all came in under 50 percent.
Babcock may have his own version of that kind of experiment. One possibility is that he shifts McDavid to the wing, which could be part of the thinking behind keeping 97 and 29 together. Another expectation is that several younger players could get bigger opportunities, including Matt Savoie, Vasily Podkolzin, Josh Samanski and Devon Levi.
None of that is guaranteed, especially with a coach like Babcock, whose judgments tend to harden quickly. But those are the moves that should happen if the roster is going to be read properly.
On The Lowdown today, Shawn Belle joins at 1 p.m. and Jason Gregor at 1:20. The show will cover Oilers training camp, the Elks’ win in Calgary and the Jays’ loss in Sacremento. It runs from noon to 2 p.m. on Sports 1440 and YouTube.
In Other News...
Oilers Fans Already Face One Big Mike Babcock Debate
Mike Babcocks arrival in Edmonton has already become a lightning rod, with the Oilers opting for a coach whose rsum is as polarizing as it is familiar. The concern around the hire is obvious: there is the baggage of past complaints about how he handled players, and there is the lack of recent coaching success to balance it out, which makes this a harder sell than a typical offseason move.
Still, the reaction has not been uniformly dismissive, and Sidney Crosbys perspective is part of why the conversation has stayed so layered. Crosby worked with Babcock at the Olympics and came away with a positive view of his structure and organization, a reminder that the coachs reputation is not built on criticism alone. For Oilers fans, though, the bigger question is whether that kind of order can matter enough now, and whether the next chapter in Edmonton ends up validating the bet or deepening the debate. [Read more 🡒]
Oilers Suddenly Have A Real Camp Question Up Front
Curtis Lazar is still sitting in free agency nearly 10 weeks after the market opened, and that alone has kept his name in the conversation around Edmonton as camp approaches. After finishing a one-year deal with the Oilers, the veteran forward is suddenly part of a broader roster puzzle for a team that has added several forwards this summer and still wants to sort out the bottom six before the real work begins.
The timing matters because the Oilers are also dealing with some wing injuries heading into training camp, which has only sharpened the speculation about whether Lazar could be brought in on a professional tryout. His reputation for work ethic, faceoff ability and a physical edge makes him an easy fit to imagine in a depth role, and the question now is whether new coach Mike Babcock sees enough there to give him a closer look. [Read more 🡒]
McDavid Rumor Revives The Oilers Question Fans Can't Ignore
The latest round of Connor McDavid chatter has been more rumor than revelation, but it still managed to stir up a familiar nerve for Oilers fans. Michael Augello of The Hockey News clarified that his comments about McDavid one day playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs were rooted in another reporters theory and were meant to apply only if Toronto were a legitimate contender, which is the kind of caveat that can easily get lost once speculation starts to spread.
For Edmonton, the important part is the present tense: McDavid remains committed to the Oilers, and nothing in the discussion amounts to confirmed news. Still, the conversation only underscores how any future decision would be shaped by more than one factor, from team performance to the possibilities that could emerge if free agency ever becomes part of the picture, with Toronto hardly the only destination that would have a say. [Read more 🡒]