{"id":668261,"date":"2026-09-22T02:06:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/668261\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T02:06:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:06:14","slug":"babcocks-return-to-the-nhl-highlights-off-season-coaching-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/668261\/","title":{"rendered":"Babcock\u2019s return to the NHL highlights off-season coaching changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Head Coach Mike Babcock gives instruction during the Edmonton Oilers NHL training camp at Rogers Place in Edmonton on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026.
\nTHE CANADIAN PRESS\/John UlanJohn Ulan\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Mike Babcock last coached an NHL game in November 2019. His biggest accomplishments in the sport so far were guiding Canada to gold at the Olympics in 2010 and 2014 and the Detroit Red Wings to the Stanley Cup in 2008.<\/p>\n

All these years later, the Edmonton Oilers are turning to Babcock to be the person to get Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl the championship that has eluded two of the best hockey players in the world for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Babcock, 63, is back in the league three years since taking over the Columbus Blue Jackets and resigning before training camp when his requests for personal photos from players in a bonding effort drew criticism as too invasive. He is old school, and that is what the Oilers wanted.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s bringing experience and accountability,\u201d Oilers CEO of hockey operations Jeff Jackson said this summer. \u201cThat\u2019s what we wanted on the organizational management side, and that\u2019s what our players wanted \u2013 our leadership group \u2013 so it all aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edmonton is among the Cup favourites largely because of McDavid and Draisaitl. After reaching the final in 2024 and \u201825, losing to Florida each time, getting knocked out in the first round of the playoffs this past spring spelled the end of Kris Knobaluch\u2019s time behind the bench.<\/p>\n

Knoblauch is calm and steadfast and got the ship going in the right direction when he replaced Jay Woodcroft in November 2023. But it was his first job in the NHL, and Babcock has tons of experience, with 700 regular season wins and 90 more in the playoffs. Sidney Crosby, who played for Babcock for those back-to-back Olympic championships, recalled an organized coach who knew what he was doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was really good at kind of painting a clear picture of how he wanted us to play, what guys\u2019 jobs were,\u201d Crosby said. \u201cReally good bench management when it came to matching lines and just a feel for if certain lines were going or certain guys were going: Putting the right guys together, timeouts, just feel for the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Babcock is one of five new coaches this season.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles banks on experience with Peter Laviolette<\/p>\n

Like the Oilers, Pacific Division rival Los Angeles turned to a Cup-winning coach with deep experience in Peter Laviolette. Los Angeles is his seventh NHL organization two decades since he won it all with Carolina. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

New York Rangers coach Peter Laviolette, top, watches during the first period of a 2025 game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in New York.Seth Wenig\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

Getting another chance \u201csays a lot about Lavy,\u201d according to Nashville\u2019s Filip Forsberg, who played for Laviolette for six seasons from 2014-20, a stretch that included reaching the final in 2017.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of shenanigans off the ice to kind of keep the guys excited,\u201d Forsberg said, citing Laviolette hosting the Predators\u2019 annual poker tournament. \u201cI loved him \u2013 just the way he can inspire people.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kings have made the playoffs five years in a row and lost in the first round each time. Laviolette is one of just four coaches in league history to make the final with three teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a lot of veteran guys who\u2019ve gone deep, who have won,\u201d forward Quinton Byfield said. \u201cThey know what\u2019s needed to make the next step, so I feel like there\u2019s a lot there for us to be a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vegas goes with a rookie in Ryan Craig<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights fired Bruce Cassidy with seven games left last season and put John Tortorella in charge. They went on a run to the final before losing to Carolina, then announced Tortorella would not return.<\/p>\n

Vegas promoted Ryan Craig from Henderson of the American Hockey League after three years coaching there. Craig was a Golden Knights assistant from their inaugural season in 2017-18 through their Stanley Cup championship in 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbelievable human being, super high character, really good communicator,\u201d centre Jack Eichel said. \u201cI know he\u2019s going to get the most out of our team, and it\u2019s a well-deserved opportunity for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto brings back Jim Hiller<\/p>\n

Hiller was an assistant on Babcock\u2019s staff with the Maple Leafs from 2015-19 and coached the Kings from when he was a midseason replacement for Todd McLellan in \u201924 until being fired in March. New Toronto general manager John Chayka tabbed him as the successor to Craig Berube in what may have been the most surprising coaching hire of this cycle.<\/p>\n

Familiarity may be his biggest strength, given that camps are shorter this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time you have a little bit of continuity, it gets you past some of that kind of get-to-know-you phase,\u201d said John Tavares, who has been with the Leafs since 2018. \u201cFor the few of us that have had him in the past, it kind of gets us off and running right off the get-go and get a good feel for who he is as a person and how he thinks and how approaches things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manny Malhotra gets his shot with Vancouver<\/p>\n

Adam Foote lasted just one season as coach of the Canucks, who finished last in the NHL. The rebuilt front office with general manager Ryan Johnson assisted by Daniel and Henrik Sedin promoted Manny Malhotra from the AHL\u2019s Abbotsford Canucks after he was in the running a year ago when Foote got the job.<\/p>\n

Malhotra brings with him a work ethic that sustained him through a lengthy playing career and is a new voice for a young group looking to start getting better.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no grey area,\u201d winger Brock Boeser said. \u201cThere\u2019s black and white of what we\u2019re supposed to do, what we\u2019re not supposed to do. I think that will help our team a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Head Coach Mike Babcock gives instruction during the Edmonton Oilers NHL training camp…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5125],"tags":[1018,1001,1019,967,991,1020,19,990,1008,1009,1004,992,989,1014,198,146,5300,1016,1013,1007,1000,1030,993,994,1006,5,1002,1003,997,1021,998,1025,1026,4,1028,1023,1027,24,786,1024,995,1011,1012,333,1010,1022,86,1015,1017,1005,999,996,1029],"class_list":["post-668261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton-oilers","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-oilers","tag-edmontonoilers","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-hockey","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-nhl","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-oilers","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}