{"id":931294,"date":"2026-10-13T09:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/931294\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T09:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T09:16:15","slug":"undrafted-owen-michaels-quickly-making-impact-with-oilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/931294\/","title":{"rendered":"Undrafted Owen Michaels quickly making impact with Oilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 If you don\u2019t know who Owen Michaels<\/a> is, don\u2019t feel bad.<\/p>\n

Barely anyone inside the Edmonton Oilers<\/a> dressing room knew who he was either, three weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Then as new head coach Mike Babcock ran through daily video clips after the pre-season games, showing the moments where players were executing his system \u2014 and the places where they were not \u2014 everyone started to notice something.<\/p>\n

All the good clips had this No. 43 guy in them, doing everything right, every day. Like, who the hell is 43?<\/p>\n

How could a guy fresh out of college, they must have wondered, be so advanced in Babcock\u2019s system, when it is completely new to all of us?<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe a little bit of a cheat code,\u201d admitted Pat Ferschweiler, Michaels’ head coach for the past three seasons at Western Michigan University and perhaps a bit of a Babcock disciple, \u201cis that I was in Detroit’s system with Grand Rapids when Babs was the head coach of Detroit.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of our terminology, our phrasing, our systems, our thoughts on what’s important, how to win\u2026 There are some similarities there that certainly make Owen feel comfortable and at home in the systems and the things that Babs is talking about. They’re important here (at UWM). I think similar things are valued there by coach Babcock.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s crazy to think that an undrafted 24-year-old who\u2019d never set foot inside Rogers Place \u2014 or played a game above the NCAA level \u2014 would have any kind of advantage over all the other players vying for the one or two jobs that were available at Oilers Training Camp, 2026.<\/p>\n

But Michaels did, and he sharply recognized it right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s made the transition a lot easier for me, being more comfortable with some of the things that are being said. The systems, the terminology, just being familiar a little bit with it,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cA lot of credit to Babs for being so great to me. Giving me an opportunity, helping me out and sharing his wealth of knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

So we\u2019ll put that down as a happy coincidence. A nice break for a guy who nobody thought had a chance of making the NHL on his first try.<\/p>\n

But how do you explain the rest of it?<\/p>\n

The part about Michaels leading the Oilers in defensive zone draws through the opening five games, with the best winning percentage (64.5%)?<\/p>\n

Or the fact he\u2019s taken the most shorthanded faceoffs for Edmonton so far, with a winning percentage (69.2%) just south of McDavid\u2019s (70%)?<\/p>\n

Sure, he\u2019s the team\u2019s only right-handed centreman. But still, in the NHL, faceoffs are the domain of the experienced.<\/p>\n

Kids don\u2019t just walk into the league and dominate the dot.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou either have it or you don’t,\u201d said ex-Oiler Craig MacTavish, a master at the craft back in the day. \u201cThere are many well-documented cases of guys getting better in the faceoff circle \u2014 (Sidney) Crosby would be the prime example of somebody that came in as a young kid that didn’t have a great face-off percentage, but worked at it.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there are guys that just have the necessary skill set to win draws: timing, strength, strategy\u2026 (Michaels) looks like he’s got it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Just for kicks, let\u2019s hear a story about MacTavish\u2019s first big faceoff win, in a game back in 1979.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my first game, back at the (Philadelphia) Spectrum. I didn’t play in the first period, but I got out for an O-zone faceoff in the second period,\u201d recounts MacTavish, one of the game\u2019s better storytellers. \u201cI beat Mel Bridgman, it goes back to Rick Smith, he shot it, and I think it was Don Marcotte who tipped it in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve been in the league for five seconds, and I\u2019ve got a point. I went to center ice, and I’m kind of oblivious that it was Mel Bridgman who I beat in the faceoff circle. The puck drops, and Bridgman just punched me in the face as hard as he could. So off we went for a couple roughing minors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome to the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

The definition of toughness has changed over the years, of course. Today, it\u2019s all about thinking the game, and executing at the high, high speed at which today\u2019s hockey is played.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Michaels’) magic is his repeatability and his competitiveness. Those are his elite qualities,\u201d Ferschweiler said. \u201cHe’s an NHL player in all those things that you said: A good skater, a good stick, smart enough, big enough.. But his real neat qualities are his ability to repeat his performance, shift in and shift out, and the fact he is hyper-competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think maybe at a younger age (faceoffs) was something I cared a lot about, and was able to kind of get an upper hand on some guys,\u201d Michaels said. \u201cIt kind of goes unappreciated at some levels. But everywhere I’ve been, it\u2019s something I’ve always worked on, taking the extra time.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, he\u2019s popped two goals already in the first five games.<\/p>\n

As Edmonton\u2019s only right-shot centre, things are going to have to take a serious downturn in Michaels\u2019 game once the injured veterans return for him to be sent to Bakersfield.<\/p>\n

He is, undoubtedly, the surprise of the young season in Edmonton.<\/p>\n

Not down in Western Michigan, however.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s just a young man that works on his craft,\u201d Ferschweiler said. \u201cHe’s never been a leading scorer of a team, not in a long time anyway. But he is detail-oriented.<\/p>\n

“He cares about everything, every day.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LOS ANGELES \u2014 If you don\u2019t know who Owen Michaels is, don\u2019t feel bad. Barely anyone inside the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":931295,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-931294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=931294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/931294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931295"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=931294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=931294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=931294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}