Barn Burner: Boomer & Pinder with Rhett Warrener - HEATED DEBATE: Are The Edmonton Oilers Making A HUGE MISTAKE With Mike Babcock?? | BB Clips

Episode Date: June 10, 2026

Boomer, Pinder and Rhett are joined by TSN's Jamie McLennan to react to the increasingly chaotic Mike Babcock situation in Edmonton. Just when it looked like the Oilers were moving closer to hiring Babcock as their next head coach, reports surfaced that the NHLPA is pushing for a full investigation into his past conduct before signing off on any return to the league. The guys discuss why this story continues to grow, what the latest reports could mean for Edmonton's coaching search, and whether the Oilers underestimated the backlash that would come with pursuing Babcock in the first place. Noodles weighs in on the controversy, the league's decision to investigate, and whether a coach with Babcock's history should be getting another opportunity behind an NHL bench. Is this a reasonable step by the NHLPA, or is Edmonton's pursuit of Babcock already dead in the water? Let us know what you think in the comments.Video Link: https://youtu.be/8Hlb4g-K4Xo#nhl #nhlshorts #nhlplayoffs #nhlpredictions #nhlhockey #nhlpicks #stanleycup #stanleycupfinal #edmontonoilers CHECK OUT OUR STUFF ⬇️BARN BURNER MERCHhttps://nationgear.ca/collections/shirts/FlamesnationBARN BURNER SHORTS https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLj_bcGtvvo-cW2DHEDZ6dEO5ePDmlhZc9&si=jo8iNGxT4ImhS2Y8📲 Follow us:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fnbarnburner/X (Twitter): https://x.com/barnburnerfn?lang=en🎧 Listen on:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/barn-burner-boomer-pinder-with-rhett-warrener/id1648562889Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Mc6Qd5U22R2zbMlQ7RxIiProducer: Jack Haverstock Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What's going on in Evanton is, I don't know if you guys feel this, but as Vegas maybe changed to everybody's mindset of like, doesn't matter, no apologies, like we got to go to a guy who can help us. No, I think they, I, I, yes and no, I think Vegas is opening eyes to things because they're having success with how they operate. I have that, I don't think this has any influence other than them saying no Cassidy for you. I think it has any influence. I just want to know when Babcock got released from prison. People are acting like he murdered somebody. Like that's the thing. I'm saying like people should be afforded second chances.

We all know that. Wasn't Columbus a second chance? I think so. And he screwed up there. But I would argue if Daryl Sutter got hired, would people react to that because of how he exited Calgary? No. No.

Because it wasn't the third, fourth. I have two opinions on this. And I've got, well, go ahead, because you go ahead, because I'm not defending it. I just think Babcock's a hell of a coach. We all know he's been awful to people, but I think he's an average coach that's had good teams. And who am I to question is coaching? Because he's had success. So I should just shut up about that.

But he's done things that old school coaches did all the time. Maybe it's different, but they were hard on their players. And I don't care about that even. but what the Oilers did not do is any due diligence at all before this got out. How do you not call the league? How do you not call the Players Association

knowing that there's a history here and do the research? And if they're still fine with it, but this looks poor. And you could have looked into this and maybe they did. Maybe they did. But if they did and they're still following through with this,

I don't know that Mike, Papcock is that good a coach that you need to put up with it. Is it worth the juice, the squeeze here? Because when you have to ask the league for permission, now they're literally starting an investigation where more shit we have not heard is going to come too light. I would be careful with that, though, because the PA is, the thing is funny is the PA

defends the perpetrator and the victim. So the PA is going, okay, you deal with this. Connor McDavid, if he's fine with it, the league better sign off on it. Because I'll tell you what, if he decides that, Oh, I'm not going to, you know, I'm not going to show up for PR things. I'm not going to do things. Like, this guy's the face of the league.

And if he's fine with it, I think the league has to be careful with that. So the list of people that he's been accused of bullying before he got to Columbus, Franson, Marner, Medado, Carrados, Ardison, Hawing, Tito. Get out of here. Do you think, do you know, do you know, so the bowling? Did Keenan or Cuddle or Quedville ever have a shot? Do you don't go. Get him a tissue.

Oh, my God. He's been the bullying. Like, stop it. It just, you know what? There's bullies everywhere. There are. Yeah. Bill Belichick was a bully.

And so the question is, is this bully worth to squeeze? The only cup he's got, he had 10 Hall of Famers? That's a fine question to ask. But to make a list of guys that are pissed off. No, but it's on top of that, you know, I don't need your context. We all know that. Back of the day, coaches were hard on their guys. I'm just, like, the thing is, I'm not, I'm not.

falling into the moral police and that. The next perfect person I meet will be the only one. And that's the thing. I'm not going to go. Do you think he's in the center of the bell curve for how he treats people? Or is he an outlier on the edge and times change? I think there is mistakes that have been made that he needs to atone for. Are you perfect?

Have you ever been hard on? Well, then shut the fuck up. I'm not applying for a job in the dying moments of Connor's prime and evidence. Here's the thing is that your take is making it very hard to not. be on the other side. It's one thing for him to have been hard on guys, and I have no idea. And he said that this was misconstrued. He wanted to see

pictures of, I don't know. I just, I want to know the story about that, but like somebody saying, oh, that, you know, my commenter going, he's a bad human because he treated, treated me poorly. I get that. Because everybody hates their coach that doesn't treat them well. I get that.

You know, as to, into, you know, Johan friends, and he hurt my feelings and was a bully. I get that. You know, I've had coaches like that too. At the end of the day, I would want to say this. John Tortorella coming into Vegas, did we all have that on our bingo card at the start of the year? None of us did.

I think the one thing that Mike Babcock would have to do is he would have to look at this through a more progressive lens. And what I mean by that is he had an opportunity. And you're right, Bender, he screwed up in Columbus. I don't know the scope of it. You know, I know some behind the scenes stories of it, which I kind of thought that there was, there's culpability around on other situations there. But my point being is, is he has to be on his best behavior.

And he has to be, he has to either a tone or change the way he looks at in 2026. And I know that was only what, 2023. It wasn't like it was 20 years ago when he did the Columbus thing. It was the same story then. He did the PR tour. It was building his brand back up. He went in. He didn't even last till the season.

He got hired in July. He was going by the gun training camps. The whole thing is that we can spin the rehab thing. That was the story three years ago and he failed miserably. You don't know the ins and outs of it, Brian. You're speaking like you're the judge and the jury or the lawyer that's been informed. So why did he resign before the season? You don't get to assume.

You are assuming. You are assuming. Were you in that room? No, I don't know what the fuck happened. I haven't said. I know what happens. What you're saying.

Let me make myself clear. What I am saying is he needed to be a guy that, like Noodle said, needed to show he'd changed and been different when he went into that Columbus job. That isn't a now thing. That was 2023. And of course, it would remain the same. But it got to a point where they were about to investigate something and he just resigned and left. So I don't know what happened, but it doesn't look like a guy that was rehab.

Is that fair? Because that's my position. Yeah. But I just, I'm not the, I don't really, to be honest, the outrage of this, I really don't care. Like there's so many people that are so but heard about it. If those players are fine with it, have at it. If he did something egregious to players in Columbus and it comes out,

you're going to have to deal with that. They'll come out in the investigation. But to me, you know, some of the individual stuff, I've had hardened coaches. And when I look back on him, I love him. You know, there's nothing. I'm not going to be an apologist for it, but I'm not going to be one of these people that stand in my soapbox and yell about it

because I just, I need to know the facts. And I also, like you said, I think, Pinder, you make a good point. Is the juice worth the squeeze? If Bruce Cassidy was available, we're probably not talking about this to be honest. And somebody made a good point, yes, I forget who it was. I think it was Frank saying, why wouldn't you wait two weeks if you're Edmonton? If you're Edmonton and you want Cassidy and Vegas has said, no, we're busy with the Stanley Cup finals.

We'll worry about you later. Wouldn't you wait another 10 days? It feels like they know they're not going to get permission. I think so. I think that's, but I mean, Bill Daly came out, I think, to one of the insiders and said, you know, we're fine with it now. At the end of the season, when the Cups handed out, we'll look at it again. To me, that was cryptic of like, dude, you, you know.

That was before the state of the league press conference he did with Gary before game one. And they basically said the contractual language is what it is. is. If these guys want long-term commitments and guaranteed money, then have an out in your contract. You didn't have one. So here's what I think. Broom said this yesterday. The league has got to be pissed off. This should not be the topic of conversation in the Stanley Cup finals when you've had four very entertaining hockey games. They have to be livid with this whole situation. Well, I will say this and I'll come back. I do not think Ebenton has had a good offseason to start the season here. It's embarrassing. They've got it all over their face. What they did to

knob lock, you know, that. Now, I get that. I think they should have fired knob lock. It gets leaked sometimes by agents and stuff that they're talking to people, all of that. You just don't fire a coach and a new coach appears five seconds later without having you're doing your stuff behind the scenes. I think what happens now is people can't keep their, their yap shut. Like that's, you know, it's the, it's the attention grabbing thing. look at me. Now I'm the guy that broke this. It's too much.

I come back to it though. I think there is a better way. I still think there probably was a list that they identified and said, we think we need X, Y, and Z. And it starts with a hardened coach who's won before. They probably have a checklist. And who would be on that list? That would be Cassidy.

That would be Baroube. That would be Laviolet. and that would be Babcock. I don't think of anybody. It would be Darrell Sutter too, but I, you know, I keep banging that drum.

I don't know if Darrell even be talked to. But at the end of the day, if Cassidy, you believe they probably, like you said, might be reading into that saying, there's no chance

we're going to get this guy. Lavie-a-let's now in L.A. Now you're down to Barubi and Babcock. And, you know, Bar-Ruby, they might have seen... Babcock's name has not come up for...

That's the one for me. Ever. There's, again, somebody said the 29 teams have picked a coach since babcock has been available not one has went down this path and he went as far as to say he was happily retired and life's great and he was real busy I think dragger had that tweet a month and a half ago which is you know what's weird though I I can't I'm not going to throw him under the bus but I remember I think it was a couple weeks ago like I heard Craig button I can't remember it was on a panel or I was sitting with him or something

like and he just floated that name. And I remember thinking like that's a, you know, that's, that's kind of out of nowhere. Because exactly. I just assumed, I think we all assume like this guy's done. Nobody's going to touch him radioactive. Although whatever you want to term, your term. And then now he's back. And yesterday was pointed out.

I don't know if you guys saw, but Zach Hyman, his team, you know, they hired his kid. So, you know, I don't know if there's ties. Obviously people talk behind. behind the scenes. But Zach Hyman would have to be in those conversations as a leadership group with Babcock and, you know, how that's come about. I just, I, you know, you're right. His name was never bandied about for, hey, and then all of a sudden he's here.

And it's like, not just here, hey, we're doing our diligence. It's like, sounds like he's here. If we, if he's in, you know. It's two things. It's a couple things. I don't even know where we're, because we're talking about so much stuff. I don't care if he's a good coach or not. don't know if he is a good coach. I think he's coached some some good teams. I think it's despicable

what he did to Mike Medano. I think it's embarrassingly bad and shamefully bad. Like terrible. Yeah. But Hyman and hiring his kid and all this, how is the Edmonton Oilers leadership group, and I'm talking about Drysidal and McDavid and Hyman, are they being led by the fucking nose up there and they don't have, can't think for themselves? Because if I'm that group and I'm going, Oh, Mike Babb? Or have they met with Mike Babcock? And what has he said that has made them go, this? Yeah, get Babcock.

Like, I don't get it. Again, I would love to be a fly on the wall. Because I don't think it's, I don't think it's McDavid and Hyman that walk into Stan Bowman's office and go, we found a coach. I think it's Stan Bowman that puts a list together with his, with Jeff Jackson and goes, these are the guys that we come back to. These are the guys that we're looking at. And this is what we feel our team. needs and obviously you're going to float it by your top players.

And people ask that, oh, are the top players dictating? I go back to 04. I go back to years in the late 90s with Chris Bronger. Everybody was like our top players are always red in. They're not red in going, I want the X, Y, and Z, but they're read into the plan from the manager a little bit. I remember Jerome calling me one time asking me, you know, hey, you got your deal done. I didn't even know.

he knew that I had a deal with Calgary before I did. You know, like that, like that type of stuff, I do believe that your, your, your leadership group is ready. You're asked questions. I went for dinner with Ken King and he asked me how good Kipper was. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, like you're asked questions, but I still think,

coming back to what you're talking about, there might be a 30 for 30 when it's all said and done going, how did this all come about? Because I, you know, Pinder, I'm not so, again, I'm not so worried about the stuff that he's done, unless it was, you know, illegal, I get all of that. Because being a bully, there's lots of them. I get that. And if he's just being an ass, you know, he's got to change his ways or at least be better for what he has to do with if he gets the job. But my thing is now, you've got to, they've got to, that, they've got to figure out.

You can hire the coach. You need a better roster construction. They've got, they've got work ahead of them in Edmonton to get back to, you know, it's not just, hey, oh, Babcock's arrived, we're going to win. Like, what are you talking about? Like they need, they've got work ahead of them. So I, I don't. Like I said, I don't think that they've had, um, a great start to the off season from a PR standpoint.

But that's where I come back. I'm like, I don't think they care. I think they, is this the owner? Because everyone talks about the leadership group. We hear standard has all Jackson. Like, for sure. I'm not surprised at all. This is all owner down.

And that's why it looks so messy because I don't think the people that have done these jobs forever makes these types of decisions. It feels like an angry billionaire who will do what he wants. It doesn't care what people think. I mean, again, I don't know how involved he is, but I would have to think he would be read in or right in the middle of all of that based in all. He's the guy writing the checks. You know, if you have to go to him. And which is fine and awesome. And if you live in Edmonton, this guy's doing everything he can.

but maybe too much. Well, that's, it comes back to it. You go at the end of the season and go, we need a coaching change. Oh, we just extended the guy for three years. So there's 10 million or 7.5. I think he was at 2.5 or whatever. You got to eat that. 7.5.

That's the guy's going to be on his couch. Now, they might let him get another job. I don't think they're, you know. He's going to. I still come back to, I, you know, the pro sports is about winning. It's not about winning, you know, the PR war. You don't need the lady Bing?

Well, I just, I'm telling you, I am, I don't know why. And maybe I'm just, Vegas has just opened my eyes to have been like, these guys just don't, you know, they, they just, they want to win. And they treat people well. I will say this. You talk to people in Vegas. The guys know, like, what their, their purposes is to win. in there, but they're treated like gold there.

I talk to Gary Lawless, you know, who is involved in the organization. I've talked to, I've talked to a few players. They get treated like gold there. I don't want it to ever think that, you know, Vegas is this terrible destination. It's hard on players. It's hard on. You better help us win or we're moving on. And isn't that, I think somewhere along the line, we've lost the plot on this.

Like, you've got to have, yes, you'd like to fill every bucket with like, it's a great family environment, great, all of that. But at the end of the day, Like, I almost feel... Winning matters that it's supposed to matter. And you made a great point. Bill Belichick's a dick. Yeah.

He wins. But he wins. But like, again, but you guys are making a good point. Babcock hasn't won in a decade. He's not a Belichick's resume. But in here, but the thing is, is somebody said this to me. John Tortorella hasn't won since 2004.

And he might win a cup. You know, yeah, but he doesn't, if we're suggesting that, you know, like, torts is hard, but torts is notorious for defending and going the distance for his players. He's tough with the media, not with his guys. But there's no track record like Babs with guys saying he's a bad human, which is quotes their kids. Right. And that's, you know, fair. Like, again, I, I'm, my, my thought process is not to defend, you know, I've never had Mike Babcock. I've known him from the

University of Lethbridge a million years ago. Always nice to me. But again, I didn't play for him. I guarantee you he would have shriveled me. You know, At the end of the day, I grew up in that era. Like, so I'm not really offended by stuff. So I get it. But, you know, Darrell was hard, but Darrell was like a father. Like Darrell protected, protected his team like his kids, but he was hard.

You know, I had Al Arbor as my first NHL coach. You know, I had my Keenan. Yeah. You know, I, I, I think maybe I've got a little scar tissue there where I just, I'm kind of hardened to it. but it doesn't mean I can't be sensitive to what the topics are. And I do say this, because if the investigation comes out and you know stuff is going to get leaked out, it'll be a PR nightmare. But at the end of the day, if the Oilers want to hire him and Connor McDavid wants that particular coach,

it's going to be tough to say no to him. I think that's the way I look at it, just because of Connor's pull within the league. I was, what made me think about it is we'll get you out of here, you got to go get groceries. Uh, it was when we had, uh, Big Earned Brian McGratton on the show one time. And he was talking about it was warm up one game and he was down stretching near

center ice and there was some former teammate or a buddy of his and they were chatting. Warm up's over. He comes into the, comes into the dressing room and one of the coaches like, you got to come here. Yeah. And Darrell is upstairs or in his office on speaker phone. He's like,

what are you making, uh, making dinner dates out there? the fuck are we doing? What are you holding hands? You guys go do some kids. Yeah. He's like, I was talking with the guy. Like meanwhile, Erd is the most ferocious guy if you need him to be. It's that was, couldn't handle guys talking and warm up. That's, you talk about that hate to lose, win at all costs kind of thing. It is lost for sure in the game today. I joke about it because in today's world, you see guys taking pictures with the wives and girlfriends and in warm up and the babies in the glass and it's Instagram this and that.

Like I'm glad that Daryl's out of the game because he might have scaled a glass and attack a few of the guys. Like you just, you never know. Like it just, I laugh about it because I'm in between the benches. And I see guys waving and taking pictures and guys taking pictures with their brothers at Center Rice on the other team.

And the game has changed so much. And I understand that. But I thought about this and this is wrong of me to say. when Canada lost in the Olympics and Canada lost in the world championships and that, when we're talking, should they have this, you know, this summit and all that, I don't think we're there. But I would love to have the swagger back and go doing everything we can to win. Like I still think that that's lost in all of this.

I think winning matters. I think what you're saying is important. It's always what we love it. Bugg and pinder context matters. Go ahead and take the point. picture. When that puck dropped, you better be ready to murder each other. I get it. I get it.

I'm being, right? Like, I get it. Because that's the thing. Oh, we're shaking hands and we're hugging and we're doing pictures. And then we don't drop. What do you say about Dorofa of Dean? Hasn't piss the drop. Hasn't.

Why? That doesn't. But what I want to do is take my old man hat off and look through the veil of 2026 and understand that you can still have the ferociousness, but you have to, you can't get bothered by the noise that goes on and the things that optically. I just, I get mad because optically, I'm like, does that guy ready to play when he's, you know, again, that's a Daryl Sutter. You're cutting deals at Santa Rice. But they're ready to play. They just play a different game. And I, I try to come back to it. And that's why I try to go into this stuff with the based opinion of going

you know, it's not that big of a deal until it's a big deal. Until you look back and go, that guy wasn't ready to play because he doesn't go into the corner and win a battle against his body. And if we see that, then we can point to it. If we don't, then so be it. Who cares? You know, I'm an old man yelling at the clouds. That's what I am. Yeah.

Well, there was some yelling. It was good. Getting back to what noodles had to say there. And you kind of got into it. Is the juice worth the squeeze? It's kind of the... take away from all of the Babcock's, like you said, Rhett, the Oilers had to know, well, there's going to be some blowback. There's going to be some pushback. There's going to be some box

that need to be checked if this is going to go through. It seems again like they had the cart in front of the horse and did all of this. And then it's like, oh, by the way, League, are we cool to do this? Well, we're not sure. Why didn't you ask us first? I would guess would be what Gary would say to them. Why are we down this road already? During the Stanley Cup finals. I'm having to deal with your coaching bullshit again. Yeah, the second time in three or four. What are we doing out there?

Oh, I think it's a terrible. I don't like the Oilers. Somebody texts me yesterday and I said, genuinely great people in Edmonton, I'm sure. I don't share for them. I can't. It's just who I am. So everything comes across as a cheap shot.

They are fucking embarrassing themselves. Big time. big time, absolutely embarrassing themselves. And you have to be oil or tattoo on your face guy to not see that. To defend this one? And there's a lot of them out there that will. And it's embarrassing that you can't be open-minded or eyes open enough to go, they are effing this up royally.

You have been out of the playoffs for months. And you've done, and now you're going to announce a coach. And I'm not here to tell you he's good, bad. That's maybe not my place. And I get pinned her shit for, but the point of it is there's a way to go about it if you're going to

fucking do it. You call the league, you call the union, and you say, you guys go to this? I think that's what they did and that's why I got out. Yeah, but you did it before. You already fucking announced you, this is the path we're on. The NHLPA, they're doing this stuff now. This stuff has been out

for days. And now this external, this additional. This is not. I guarantee. I guarantee. the union just heard about this. I think what they heard when we heard and now there's an investigation that the NHL has started. And so now, but isn't that the point? We're making the same point. The Oilers,

when you pursue this candidate, you are having to acknowledge that there will be an investigation open and you're going to look like idiots. You really have to believe he's the best candidate. Even if you're prepared for that. If you're prepared for all the blowback and the bad press and all that stuff, do this first. Like, do this. And, and, and

Betman would hear about it then and he would tell you, shut the F up for 10 more days. Yeah. What are you doing? See, I think, you know, they have gone and asked in the league's like, we're not going to say yes or no until there's an investigation.

If you are going to hire him, we'll do the investigation. We're not doing an investigation if you're not going to hire them. And that's what puts them in this horrible look is that, you know, they were going to do an investigation in Columbus. And he just resigned. And they're like, well, there's no more investigation. It doesn't work from a team. So now if you want to hire them,

if you're going to do this, we're going to have to do an investigation. Yeah. And they never finished it. They were going to start it and it never happened in Columbus. Yeah. They want to do it. It's another,

auto season, I just don't know how you get to his name. Like how is, how is this the best candidate? Like the Leafs with John Chacon, no one had talked about him. Yeah. Years.

Yeah. And here we are again. There were a lot of people who just thought because of how it went, he'd made all the money. You have to be. Not need dough. If you're Mike, Babcock right now today.

Only he knows what happened. Yeah. We are sitting here on our pedestals, kind of passing judgment, and that's probably not the right thing. But if you're Mike Babcock, at this stage of life, I don't know, mid-60s,

one cups, has millions. And now this, you have a kids and, like, like, it's it's almost an investigation into your, what's the word I'm searching for? Like who you are as a person, right?

You know what I mean? It's an identity as a person. Yeah, it is. And like the badano thing rubbed you the wrong way. There's other things that rubbed other people more, but there's just a pattern of being a bad human. I just use that as an example. And noodles is right.

And I've been, there are bad humans. Yeah, like not a lot of people like Bob Hartley when he was here. And guess what? We knew that was the last time he was going to coach in this league, and he was done. I thought we were there with Babcock. I know we're there with Keen.

And I don't know why Babcock wants to go through this either. I think he is an egomaniac who needs to be in the spotlight, and this is his last best chance. It would be like the Toronto thing. If you can be the one that leads Toronto to a cup, you'll be a legend. It's almost that feels like that. If you can get the Oilers with McDavid to the cup,

get them over the hump. You think that really? Because I feel a little bit opposite, where it's like, you have McDavid and try so. you should be winning cup. We make fun of the oil or organization because they have not won with these guys.

They're over McDiv. It's like, what kind of idiots are you? Like, you should be winning cups at least one. And they haven't. And whatever. You're still going to feel good about winning a Stanley Cup with your Babcock. But, and to me, it's almost take Babcock aside.

Because my hatred for Mike Babcock pales in comparison to my disdain for the Oilers. And what the Oilers are doing, doing is just giving me more fuel to be like, what is wrong with you? When you look at where they were a couple of years ago, went away from a Stanley Cup final and what's transpired since they lost game seven. Like it is a remarkable, like the landmine, foot and bear trap, PR disaster. Like Jamie said, it has been, it has been a tough start to an offseason.

An offseason that needs to, it doesn't have to be flawless, but, you need to make some real steps forward. After a miserable last two off seasons. And it is not. Like you think about. Manjapani, lateral move in net, offer sheets not matched. Jeff Jackson, who's never run a team, running the team, and blowing his cash. Okay, okay, okay.

So the point being is that you literally were in a spot where you probably were on your way to a cup. And now you've got one year left with Connor. And you're somehow in a spot where you believe Mike Babcock. and all the baggage he's going to bring is your best answer? It's wild. What does this BS talk about he's going to sign seven more years? I think that's PR yesterday. I think that's damage control because you can't even talk to him for 13 months.

He's got two years left. Okay. I didn't understand because I saw that. I'm like, well, that's what I'd be saying too on a day where we look like the biggest idiots in the world. Don't worry. Connor's resigning. I mean,

and my take noodles makes a good point. If Babcock wants him probably or if McDavid wants Babcock, he probably does have some sway in this. I don't, and that's what we don't know as well, because is the owner selling it to Connor? Is the Connor saying I want him? Let me finish my, but why would you?

What could Mike Babson tell you that's, so I, maybe, maybe they had a conversation. Conner's like, but that makes me go, Connor, you're out to lunch on this. Yeah. I still think this is more, more to my point is, if I'm

McDavid, I'm looking at this going, what are we doing? There's no way you wouldn't prefer to have Chris Knoblock in that chair than Mike Babcock right now. I don't know about that. I think that Noblock was a terrible coach and they didn't win with them. I think they all know that. I think there was plenty of whether it's, I don't care that Noblock or Babcock. There's coaches out that are really good that are really good.

And you don't, it's great to have this. We need a guy that's won and we need a hard. There are a ton of coaches. Jay McKee, I always say him because I love him. just got hired in Hamilton. He's head coached. Fuck, guys would love playing for this guy. Marty St. Louis came off the frickin midget trip.

Like, why? You have these hard. We need this, and we can't hire anything. What are you talking about? So you're going to take on this issue? Because you want a guy that won a cup two decades ago? Hasn't been a playoff since 19 years or won a playoff series of 15 years.

I don't understand. And if they go and win, here's the shitty thing. Whoever they are, they could go win a cup. Why? Because they got Connor and Leo. Yeah. Completely mismanaged.

I really feel like they wanted La Vialette and he chose L.A. And I would understand the multitude of reasons why. Of course you have the best chance to win a cup next year if you're Lavio let. But what's guaranteed beyond a year from now with this team? Like, I think Stan, if it doesn't go well, I don't know who the GM is. I don't know that Connor's. there or not. I don't know that Leon falls them or not. Like I think it's a

one year we will burn the bridges, the boats, everything to try to win. But beyond that, there's no guarantees of what's left there. And what can they, so let's get off this topic. What can the Oilers do to like, okay, they've hired a coach and it's Babcock.

Great. What the, does that mean? You don't have a goal to any. Your defense nurse has to, like, what are you doing to make the team better? Still a lot of holes and not a lot of cap space to sort of month. Like you can go give Alex Tuck 80 million over or 70 million over seven years, but

again, like, it'll help you a little, but you're going to be buying a lot of bad years. And that's what a lot of the contracts are there. I don't know. Like, they've got some caps space, but not a ton. They got work to do. They don't have a number one goalie. Like, they have the guys they don't want. They've got $8, $9 million going to Jack

Campbell's buyout and Tristan Jari. It's insane. I'm laughing because I can just envision daily embedment. growing. Maybe the most entertaining final we've seen in a decade. Are you people up to? What are you people up to?

What are you doing?