This all could have been very simple for the Edmonton Oilers.
Had the Vegas Golden Knights allowed the Oilers to interview Bruce Cassidy, the coach they fired in April, he'd likely be in charge in Edmonton right now, and the hockey world would've nodded along politely.
Alas, the Knights would rather keep paying Cassidy not to coach the Oilers, and so Edmonton turned to Mike Babcock. And the hockey world has been scratching its head in confusion.
Hiring Babcock has now become a mess before it's even happened. At the NHLPA's request, the NHL has reportedly agreed to investigate past allegations of improper conduct by Babcock when he was about to become the Columbus Blue Jackets' head coach in 2023. He resigned before the season began after it emerged that part of his get-to-know-you process apparently involved looking at photos on players' phones.)
Essentially, the probe that will now happen is the one that didn't happen in 2023 after Babcock removed himself.
To summarize: the Oilers, who have hockey's greatest player in Connor McDavid and a pretty damn good one in Leon Draisaitl, are set to remain coachless while their preferred candidate undergoes a background check.
And to think, we all thought Edmonton's biggest problem was its goaltending.
While there are obviously questions about whether the Oilers knew they'd have to wait out an NHL investigation before hiring their guy, there's a more basic question that needs to be addressed: How did they land on him in the first place?
Weirdly, the Golden Knights might be to blame for that, too. Many furiously rolled their eyes when Vegas dumped Cassidy for John Tortorella, an old-school grump who won a Cup with the Tampa Bay Lightning more than 20 years ago but has found little playoff success since.
Now, with Vegas going on a heater all the way to the Cup Final, perhaps the Oilers believed what they were missing was their own old-school grump who won a Cup a long time ago but has found little playoff success since.
That's about where the similarities end. The Knights may have needed a new voice behind the bench after an uninspiring regular season, but they have a deeper roster than the one that won the Cup just three seasons ago.
Meanwhile, the same issues have plagued the Oilers for years - no depth scoring, big questions on the blue line, and bigger questions in goal. Though their top-end firepower overcame all the shortcomings for a couple of playoff runs, it caught up to them with a first-round exit this season.
There's no evidence that Babcock is the guy to solve all those problems. He won a Cup in 2008 with Detroit, but he had a loaded roster that consisted of multiple Hall of Famers and a bunch of guys who had already won with the Red Wings a few years earlier. While Babcock has also claimed a pair of Olympic gold medals with Team Canada, setting up those ridiculous lineups for a short tournament is quite different from the grind of an NHL season.
Additionally, Babcock hasn't won a playoff series since 2013, falling in the first round in each of his last two seasons in Detroit and in his three playoff appearances with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
At least, he's won a Cup more recently than Tortorella.
His lack of recent on-ice success, though, pales in comparison to the off-ice factors that led to his departure from the Blue Jackets before he ever got behind their bench. The thing with the phones was strange, but then there was the story about him asking a young Mitch Marner to rank his teammates' work ethic and sharing the grades with the team. Former Red Wing Johan Franzen also essentially called Babcock a workplace bully, and there may be unknown allegations that the NHL is now set to investigate.
Some Oilers fans are bound to believe that this is exactly the kind of coach the Oilers need: a hard-ass who will scowl, yell, and maybe even frighten them into success. Evidently, that's what Edmonton's front office was thinking - Babcock does have a world-class scowl.
Still, he hasn't coached in the NHL since 2019. And Babcock seemed to struggle to relate to Toronto's young core (not that subsequent coaches have done much better), and he reportedly hit it off so poorly with the Columbus players that they basically revolted rather than work for him.
Is this really the coach the Oilers want ahead of a season that'll likely determine whether McDavid ultimately stays in Edmonton?
It's an incredible gamble, if the Oilers even get a chance to take it.
Scott Stinson is a contributing writer for theScore.
