{"id":787907,"date":"2026-07-27T20:06:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T20:06:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/787907\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T20:06:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T20:06:08","slug":"mcdavid-draisaitl-believe-babcock-is-perfect-fit-as-oilers-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/787907\/","title":{"rendered":"McDavid, Draisaitl believe Babcock is \u2018perfect fit\u2019 as Oilers coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

McDavid, Draisaitl and teammate Zach Hyman<\/a>\u00a0met with Babcock before he was hired by Edmonton to iron out any concerns they might have with the coach, who has not been behind an NHL bench since being fired by Toronto after going 9-10-4 in the first 23 games of the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n

\u201c(That was) very important,\u201d Draisaitl said. \u201cAs we all know, there’s history there, and I think we got that all off the table. We had an honest conversation about it and he was very honest about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think for us, it’s time to move on and look forward to the start of the year. We\u2019re extremely excited.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it’s just the time that we’re all in in our career, I guess the age that we’re at, and I think he’s the right guy to get us to where we want to get to,\u201d the 30-year-old center said. \u201cObviously, it’s a different look, a change in personality, but very excited \u00a0to learn from him, very excited to work with him, and yeah, like I said, very excited to get going.\u201d<\/p>\n

To Draisaitl\u2019s point, the Oilers\u2019 window to win remains open.<\/p>\n

They reached the Stanley Cup Final in 2024 and 2025, only to lose to the Florida Panthers each time. Edmonton (41-30-11) finished second in the Pacific Division last season before losing to the Anaheim Ducks in six games in the Western Conference First Round, which led to the firing of Kris Knoblauch as coach on May 14.<\/p>\n

The clock is also potentially ticking on McDavid\u2019s time in Edmonton. The 29-year-old center is entering the first season of a two-year, $25 million contract ($12.5 million average annual value) and can become an unrestricted free agent on July 1, 2028. McDavid led the NHL last season with 138 points (48 goals, 90 assists) in 82 games and is second in Oilers history with 1,220 points (409 goals, 811 assists) in 794 games, trailing only Wayne Gretzky<\/a>\u00a0(1,669 points; 583 goals, 1,086 assists).<\/p>\n

Aside from Babcock\u2019s hiring, Edmonton has adjusted its roster this offseason, highlighted by the addition of goalie Frederik Andersen, who helped the Carolina Hurricanes win the Cup last season, and the trading of veteran defenseman Darnell Nurse<\/a> to the San Jose Sharks for defenseman Shakir Mukhamadullin<\/a>. The Oilers also signed defenseman defenseman Ryan Shea<\/a>\u00a0(five years, $4 million AAV).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very exciting, first and foremost, with the new guys coming in,\u201d McDavid said. \u201cObviously, it\u2019s disappointing, too, to lose someone like Darnell and the rest of the guys, but it’s part of the business.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, it\u2019s hard to really put into words what (Nurse) has meant to not only me, but the whole group and everybody in Edmonton. So, (I\u2019m) extremely disappointed to see that happen, but at the same time really excited about some new additions.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McDavid, Draisaitl and teammate Zach Hyman\u00a0met with Babcock before he was hired by Edmonton to iron out any…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-787907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}