Edmonton Oilers star Leon Draisaitl looks forward to new head coach Mike Babcock bringing a different attitude and mentality. What does that look like?
When the Edmonton Oilers hired Mike Babcock to be their coach this summer, it raised a lot of eyebrows.
But we were quickly assured it wasn't just that the players signed off on a management decision. They actively sought out Babcock as the kind of bench boss they believe can reverse their fortunes.
Speaking to NHL.com at the league's annual European media tour, Leon Draisaitl spelled out the rationale.
"I think he's got a very clear plan, and I think he holds guys accountable, and I think to him, it's not about who it is when it comes to accountability, you know?" Draisaitl said. "Like, we're looking to be coached. We're looking to get better.
"Connor (McDavid) and I sometimes deserve (to be yelled at) too, just like anyone else does. I don't think 'Babs' is going to care overly much who we are in terms of that. I think sometimes that's needed."
It seems there are three things at play here.
First and most significantly is that it would appear, when reading between the lines, that the Oilers' on-ice leadership feels ex-coach Kris Knoblauch treated the top guys with kid gloves.
That makes some amount of sense. Draisaitl and McDavid continued to turn out great seasons, even when playing hurt, and you don't really hire your best player's CHL coach to come in and peel the paint if he's a little slow on the back check.
If the Oilers players feel that wasn't working, or was perhaps leading to some discord in the room, then changing out the coach makes sense.
Second, hockey players have a tendency to hardly ever blame the goaltending (at least publicly) when their team gives up four or more goals per night. That's something the Oilers did a whopping 36 times last season, including empty netters.
Especially after the Tristan Jarry trade, the fact that they couldn't count on a goalie to steal them a game simply cannot fall on the fact that he is a bad netminder behind a — let's face it — subpar defensive corps.
There is a feeling that you don't get a starting goalie whose save percentage starts with a ".85" simply because he personally is bad. That is seen as a team failure, even if it really isn't.
Finally, the fact that Babcock is very regimented in his approach to both interpersonal and on-ice dealings is seemingly something the Oilers want.
"We never were able to really grab and find our game throughout 82 games," Draisaitl also told NHL.com. "You see it every year: The teams that are good, there's a pattern that they create and build over 82 games. They know what their game is, and I think we kind of missed that."
Again, if you want to chalk that up to the roster depth thinning out over the last few off-seasons to accommodate some bigger contracts for Draisaitl and Evan Bouchard, plus the fact that key cogs like Draisaitl, Zach Hyman, and Jake Walman all missed 25-30 games, then that's just the cost of doing business.
Apart from hiring Babcock — a coach who hasn't been in the league for seven years and hasn't been out of the first round of the playoffs in twice that long — the Oilers had a pretty good off-season and addressed some serious needs.
They also effectively admitted that their hands were tied by some really bad contracts (Bowman is perhaps still trying to get to the bottom of who gave those out).
All of this creates a kind of chicken-and-egg situation where it will be difficult to tell whether hiring Babcock, the team's sixth head coach in nine seasons, was the right move.
If the Oilers are better next year, will that be because Babcock imposed some sort of a new mindset and approach in the team? Or is it simply a product of one of the three or four best players in the world hopefully being available for the full 84-game schedule, and the average quality of the defensive core going up a little bit over the summer?
We can make an educated guess as to what Draisaitl and Co. would say.
But if the Oilers are worse, or more or less the same, you have to wonder what happens next. Probably nothing good.
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