Mike Babcock has Stan Bowman dealing with the bad news Edmonton hoped would fade fast.
The Oilers hired Babcock on June 23 as the 19th head coach in franchise history, betting that his résumé would outweigh the baggage that still follows him around the league.
That bet may already be shaping the summer. Daily Faceoff's latest Edmonton discussion pushed the same question back to the front: did Babcock's arrival make some players think twice about joining the Oilers?
Tom Gazzola's answer was the part that stuck. He said the narrative has legitimacy and that there are players who flat-out do not want to play for Babcock. That is not empty noise when Edmonton is trying to squeeze every last piece out of its Cup window.
The Oilers can point to players who still came anyway. NHL.com confirmed Edmonton signed Frederik Andersen for 1 year at $2.8 million, Ryan Shea for 5 years at a $4 million AAV, and brought back Kasperi Kapanen at $2.6 million.
That helps Bowman's case, but it does not kill the concern. Andersen and Kapanen both had past links to Babcock, which means their comfort level does not tell you much about the rest of the market. That is an inference from Edmonton's signings and Babcock's history with those players.
" Tom Gazzola
“There are people who loathe Mike Babcock. I don't like the move personally, but that doesn't mean it won't work out. That doesn't mean it won't be successful.”
Edmonton also has enough pull to cover for some of this. Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and a win-now roster will always get the Oilers in the room for serious talks.
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That is what makes this story uncomfortable for Edmonton. The club can still improve, and maybe it already has, but that does not mean Babcock was neutral in the process. It may just mean the Oilers are good enough to survive the drag. That is an inference from Gazzola's comments and Edmonton's signing activity.
“I do think there probably are a lot of guys out there who have reservations about playing for Mike Babcock.”
NHL.com described Edmonton's July 1 as a productive day after the team created cap flexibility by moving Darnell Nurse and then added Andersen, Shea, Kapanen, Max Jones, Eduards Tralmaks, and Mathieu Joseph.
But productive is not the same as ideal. If even a small slice of players crossed Edmonton off because of the coach, then Bowman had to shop from a shorter list than a contender with McDavid should ever face. That is an inference from the reported reservations around Babcock.
“Sometimes the promise of winning outweighs an a-hole of a coach. Some guys can get over that hump because you've got Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl there.”
That is the bad news here. Not that the Oilers could not do anything, because they clearly did. It is that they may have had to work around a problem they created themselves behind the bench.
Babcock may still win games in Edmonton. He may even push this team deeper than the last staff did. But if Bowman's own coaching hire narrowed the pool before free agency even opened, the Oilers made their summer harder than it needed to be. That is the part Edmonton cannot shrug away.
Source : Did Mike Babcock impact how much Oilers could do this summer?
Did Mike Babcock make Edmonton's offseason harder than it should have been?
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