Mike Babcock’s move with Colton Dach against Detroit felt less like a temporary tweak and more like a loud hint about where the Oilers are headed.
When Zach Hyman left the game with another injury, Babcock pushed Dach out of his fourth-line centre role and onto the second line wing. Afterward, the coach made it plain what he saw.
“I thought Dacher had a real good night. He played heavy.
He’s a way better winger than he is a centre. And soon as we moved him to the wing, that helped.”
That shift matters because Babcock had spent this season trying to learn whether Dach could handle centre duty. There were good reasons for the experiment.
A big, powerful centre in a lower-line role is an appealing idea, and the Oilers also had a practical need for more centres who could step in when required. That need only grew when veteran centres Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Jason Dickinson were out with injury, and when Leon Draisaitl was moved to the wing alongside Connor McDavid.
That Draisaitl-McDavid setup has been one of the biggest reasons Edmonton has started so well, even if plenty of people still argue about it. By comparison, the checking line experiment with Owen Michaels, Mathieu Joseph and Alex Formenton has not taken hold. That group has been on for only five goals for and nine against at even strength, and it has not consistently produced the kind of heavy forechecking and puck protection needed to tilt the ice.
Dach’s trial at centre was more encouraging. He has handled himself better than expected, doing solid work below the goal line with his defensemen to slow plays down and move the puck out.
But there’s a tradeoff. At centre, he has had less chance to do the part of his game that jumps off the page: the punishing forecheck, the battles on the boards, the net-front collisions, the whole heavy package.
Babcock seems to have learned what he needed to learn. Dach can help down the middle in a pinch.
He can also do damage on the wing, and that may be where his best value sits for now. What the coach still needs is another big, physical winger who can fit with Nugent-Hopkins.
That’s because Nugent-Hopkins, for all his speed and skill and intelligence, can get overmatched if a line around him leans too small. He looked his best at centre when he had Hyman and Evander Kane next to him in the 2025 playoffs.
For a short stretch before Hyman’s injury, that line was electric: four goals for, only one against, and 66 even-strength minutes of strong play. Had Hyman not been hurt against Dallas, that trio might have been part of a Stanley Cup push for Edmonton.
Dach looks like a natural fit for that kind of role, with Nugent-Hopkins and either Hyman, Vasily Podkolzin or Kasperi Kapanen, who has had issues with risk and reward this season.
There may still be times when Dach is needed back at centre this year. But after the Detroit game, it’s hard to ignore the shape of the answer Babcock seems to be finding: Dach on the wing, where his forechecking edge can hit harder and travel farther.
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