Mike Babcock, with D.J. Smith now beside him in Edmonton, opened his Oilers run by revisiting how his Columbus stint ended.
That was the first real jolt from his introductory day. Edmonton did not only hire a big-name bench boss. It handed him a mic, and he went straight at the question everyone was waiting on.
Babcock said he chose to walk away from Columbus. He framed it as a decision he made once it became clear the staff was not together from the start.
“I chose to walk away. It was very evident before the year started. It was evident that we weren't together as a staff from the get-go.”
- Mike Babcock
That matters because his Blue Jackets exit never looked clean. He resigned in September 2023 before coaching a game, and the story followed him all the way back to this Oilers hire.
Edmonton knew that going in. The NHL completed its review last week and cleared Babcock to return, which opened the door for the Oilers to make him their 19th head coach.
So this was never only about systems or line matching. It was about whether Babcock could stand in front of a room again and make people believe the past would not drag into the present.
“My wife gave me a call and she said, ‘It's time to get out of there.'”
- Mike Babcock
The Oilers did more than hope on that point. Babcock said he wanted to meet Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Zach Hyman before taking the job, and he told them he had no interest unless they were fully in.
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The first big surprise of Mike Babcock's Edmonton tenure has already arrived
That is the strongest angle here. Stan Bowman did not sell this as nostalgia or name value. He sold it as a hard move for a team that thinks its Cup window is still wide open.
Babcock also did not duck the self-scouting part. He said making anyone uncomfortable should force reflection, and he admitted tone can be part of the problem even when the message is honest.
“Any time you make anybody feel uncomfortable in your life you should take a look at yourself.”
- Mike Babcock
That is where D.J. Smith comes in. Edmonton named him associate coach under Babcock, giving the bench a second strong voice who has worked with him before and just posted an 11-6-6 run as Los Angeles interim coach.
The timing around all of this is sharp. Edmonton fired Kris Knoblauch on May 14, then moved fast to reshape the room with Babcock, Smith, Connor Murphy, and Jason Dickinson all added or locked in within weeks.
That tells you what the Oilers think this season is. Not a reset. Not a patient regroup. A demand season, with McDavid now 2 years from free agency and the organization acting like every month counts.
Babcock's words alone will not settle anything. But on Day 1 in Edmonton, he made the story plain: he says he left Columbus on his own, and now the Oilers are betting that version of Mike Babcock can still push a contender over the line.
Source : Mike Babcock claims that he left the Blue Jackets on his own
Did the Oilers take the right gamble by trusting Mike Babcock after Columbus?
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