The Mike Babcock Era In Edmonton Is Already Off To A Hot Start With Mark Messier Saying He's "Horrified About The Whole Thing"
Dave Reginek. Getty Images.Two things can be true at the same time. Mike Babcock could be a tremendous piece of shit, but he can also be an incredibly successful hockey coach. Say whatever you want about the guy, but he has won a Stanley Cup. He has won an Olympic gold medal. He has won a World Championship. He has won at every level of the game he has coached. But he's also been a total fucking prick every step of the way, it would seem. Guys who have played, and won, for him have called him "the worst person I've ever met".
The Edmonton Oilers are at a point right now where they need to win. Connor McDavid is only under contract for these next two seasons, and nothing is guaranteed after that. The Oilers need to win, and they need to win now. So at this moment, they are going to prioritize winning over everything else. Even if that means they are going to be bringing in a guy who has had so many people warn you along the way that he's an awful guy.
Which then brings us to Mark Messier. A total legend in Edmonton. He won 4 Cups in Edmonton with Gretzky. He then led the Oilers to another Cup as the captain in 1990. A few years later, he won his 6th Stanley Cup with the Rangers. He might be boring as all hell on the ESPN broadcast, but this guy knows even more about winning than Mike Babcock does. And if he's saying he's "horrified" about the Oilers' decision to hire Mike Babcock, well then maybe Edmonton should just start preparing for life without McDavid now.
The thing that really sticks out here is that Messier clearly doesn't think hiring Babcock was a great idea, but he's more horrified about the way the Oilers are operating right now. Like yeah, probably a bad call to hire one of the most hated men in hockey to be your head coach. But at this point, it seems like Edmonton is doomed to fail either way if they are blurring the lines between players and management.
Times are definitely different now than they were in the 80s and 90s with how much power players can have. You could say that all started to change a little when Lindros refused to go to the Quebec Nordiques. You could say that started to change when Mario Lemieux was literally a team owner and player at the same time. But it's just where we're at in today's world where athletes are bigger arguably bigger than the teams they play for. It used to be that "nobody is bigger than the program", but that's just not really the case anymore. Connor McDavid is absolutely bigger than that Edmonton Oilers at the moment, so it makes sense why they'd have him involved in the interviewing process.
But Mark Messier won 5 Cups with the Oilers, and the team hasn't managed to win anything since he's been gone. So maybe he knows a little more than guys like Stan Bowman and Ken Holland and Peter Chiarelli about what it takes to build a dynasty around the best player on the planet. It starts with running your team like an actual, professional organization. It involves not hiring the biggest dirt bag in hockey to be your coach. And it ends with your names being engraved on the Cup just as many times as members of the Dundon family.