Seven years after he coached his last NHL game, Mike Babcock is out of retirement and back behind an NHL bench.
The Edmonton Oilers announced Tuesday that Babcock has been hired as the brand new team’s head coach, after weeks of speculation.
“Today is type of prefer it was in 2002 after I joined Anaheim. You’re joining the perfect league on the earth and you’ve a sense of gratitude,” Babcock said at a Tuesday afternoon introduction news conference at Rogers Place.
“It’s an unbelievable place. I’m a Western Canada guy. The Oil has the fans like no person.
“So it’s a special, special thing.”
Babcock said he met with a number of the team’s management and top players, including captain Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman, and had a lengthy conversation he said was “phenomenal.”
“The interaction with star players who want nothing greater than to win and inform you how they’re willing to vary and adjust to make that occur, it’s pretty exciting for a coach,” he said.
He takes over from Kris Knoblauch, who was fired after the Oilers’ first-round loss to Anaheim on this yr’s playoffs.
The Oilers were cleared to rent Babcock by the NHL on Thursday after the league concluded an investigation into his conduct during his transient stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023.
The investigation was conducted on the request of the NHL Players’ Association once reports of Edmonton’s interest in Babcock surfaced.
Joining Babcock’s staff is associate coach D.J. Smith, a former Toronto assistant under Babcock who later coached the Ottawa Senators for greater than five seasons.
Edmonton Oilers associate coach D.J. Smith speaks to the media as head coach Mike Babcock looks on during a news conference in Edmonton on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
James Maclennan/ The Canadian Press
Babcock previously coached parts of 16 seasons with Anaheim, Detroit and Toronto, leading the Red Wings to a Stanley Cup title in 2007-08.
He last coached an NHL game Nov. 19, 2019, a 4-2 Maple Leafs loss to the Vegas Golden Knights. He was fired the following day in consequence of Toronto’s 9-10-4 begin to the season.
He signed a two-year, US$8 million contract with the Blue Jackets on July 1, 2023, but resigned just before the beginning of coaching camp amid an investigation into reports of Babcock invading the privacy of his players.
It has been some time since a Babcock-led team has enjoyed significant NHL success.
The last time he took a team past the primary round of the playoffs was 2012-13, when the Red Wings lost within the Western Conference semifinals to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.
Edmonton Oilers head coach Mike Babcock, left, and general manager Stan Bowman delay a jersey during a news conference in Edmonton on Tuesday, June 23, 2026.
James Maclennan/ The Canadian Press
Nevertheless, with a limited pool of candidates and an urgency to win with superstar forwards Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl still within the fold, the Oilers opted to rent a head coach with experience and success on the NHL and international levels, though his methods have come under scrutiny at times.
Babcock on Tuesday acknowledged the sport and approach to managing players has modified and training styles must evolve too, which he committed to embracing.
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“It’s so essential while you’re the coach with the final manager and national hockey team that you just’re all aligned.
“What I mean by that’s, there’s gonna be plenty of hard communication — but so long as that communication is simple and behind closed doors and respectful of each other, you’ve a probability to enhance the organization and get well.”
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The 63-year-old Babcock, from Saskatoon, joined Anaheim’s American Hockey League affiliate in Cincinnati after a successful run coaching the Western Hockey League’s Spokane Chiefs.
He was named Anaheim’s head coach before the 2002-03 season and led them to the Stanley Cup final in his first campaign, where they lost to the Recent Jersey Devils.
He joined the Red Wings as a free agent after the 2004-05 lockout and spent 10 seasons in Detroit. The Red Wings made the playoffs in each season and appeared in back-to-back Stanley Cup finals against Pittsburgh in 2008 and 2009. The Red Wings won in ’08, and the Penguins got revenge the following season.
After failing to achieve a contract extension with the Red Wings, Babcock signed an eight-year contract value US$50 million with Toronto before the 2014-15 season.
The Maple Leafs made three straight playoff appearances under Babcock but lost in the primary round every time, including seven-game defeats to Boston in 2017-18 and 2018-19.
Babcock’s coaching methods have faced criticism over time.
After Toronto fired him, forward Mitch Marner confirmed reports that Babcock had asked him as a rookie to rank teammates by work ethic before sharing the outcomes with players.
In his 2024 memoir, former Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri wrote that Babcock had training staff rank players’ effort levels within the gym after which discussed those evaluations in front of teammates, which he said damaged trust inside the dressing room.
Former Detroit Red Wings forward Johan Franzen called Babcock the “worst person” he had ever met in 2019. Ex-teammate Chris Chelios later said Babcock berated Franzen during their time in Detroit to the purpose of a nervous breakdown.
Retired defenseman Mike Commodore, who played for Babcock briefly in 2011 in Detroit, spoke out this spring.
“I don’t need to hear one other word about how essential mental health is for us while you literally just paved the best way, cleared the best way for Mike Babcock to get one other opportunity within the NHL and put him in one other position of power where he can abuse people,” Commodore said on the “Clearing the Crease” podcast.
Daniel Winnik, who played for Babcock in 2015-16 with the Leafs, last week called him “the one guy that’s ever made me hate hockey.”
“I just hated coming to the rink,” Winnik said on TSN 1050 radio in Toronto. “He’s only a bully.”
After stints on the University of Vermont and the University of Saskatchewan, Babcock announced in 2022 that he had retired from coaching. He made his return next yr with Columbus before quickly exiting the occupation again.
After being hired by the Blue Jackets, ex-NHLer Paul Bissonnette said on the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast he was told by an unidentified player that the veteran coach asked players during one-on-one meetings to see photos on their phones and would then stream them on his television.
Babcock and Columbus captain Boone Jenner said in a joint statement released by the Blue Jackets that the report is “a gross misrepresentation of those meetings and intensely offensive.”
The NHL Players’ Association investigated the reports before Babcock issued an announcement announcing his resignation.
“Upon reflection, it has develop into clear that continuing as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets was going to be an excessive amount of of a distraction,” Babcock said. “While I’m disenchanted to not have had the chance to proceed the work we’ve begun, I understand it’s in the perfect interest of the organization for me to step away presently. I wish everyone within the organization well within the upcoming season.”
Internationally, Babcock led Canada to gold medals on the 2010 and 2014 Winter Olympics, the 2016 World Cup of Hockey, the 1997 world junior hockey championship and the 2004 world hockey championship.
— With files from The Associated Press and Karen Bartko, Global News