With Peter Laviolette reportedly on his way to the Los Angeles Kings, Connor McDavid and the Edmonton Oilers are still on the lookout for a head coach to lead them through the 2026-27 NHL season. According to reports, the Oilers are onto Mike Babcock, but will be taking precautions as to avoid any sort of legal trouble.
“Peter Laviolette will be the next head coach of the Los Angeles Kings,“ Elliotte Friedman reported through his X account. Laviolette will take over after interim coach DJ Smith, who in turn replaced Jim Hiller midway through the 2025-26 NHL campaign.
With Laviolette off the coaching carousel, Edmonton has been put on notice. Time is of the essence. Although recent buzz suggested the Oilers could run a one-year experiment with McDavid and company if Bruce Cassidy isn’t allowed to interview with them, the team may be steering in a different direction.
Apparently, roads are now leading Edmonton to Babcock, who has been out of the NHL since 2023. However, to go down that road the Oilers may have to evade a minefield.
Peter Laviolette is signing with the Kings.
Babcock could bring trouble
“The Oilers are consulting with the NHLPA to see if there are objections that must be resolved before potentially hiring Mike Babcock,” Darren Dreger of TSN reported on X. “Further investigation may be required.”
The last thing the Oilers need heading into such a high-stakes season is more off-ice trouble. For Connor McDavid, who has two years left under contract, but could very well ask out of Edmonton at any given moment, such a controversial hiring could be the last straw.
In more ways than one, Stan Bowman could be jumping from the frying pan into the fire by hiring Babcock immediately after the polarizing firing of Kris Knoblauch. Bowman is walking on thin ice in the Gateway to the North, and such a hiring could be all she wrote for him—as well as McDavid’s patience with the organization.
What happened with Babcock?
Babcock was thrown into the eye of the storm in 2023, shortly after signing on to become the head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Amid allegations that he invaded players’ privacy (reports stated he went through players’ phones and photos), he resigned from the position before he even coached a game in the Discovery City.
He’s been out of the league ever since and recently shut the door on McDavid and the Oilers by admitting he was loving his time away from the NHL. Whether something has changed for him or Edmonton comes up with an offer too good to resist remains to be seen.
A priori, it seems the two sides aren’t seeing eye to eye, but if Bowman and the Oilers’ brass are truly interested, there may be no mountain high enough and no legal trouble too risky to deter them.
