When the Oilers decided to take a swing on controversial veteran head coach Mike Babcock earlier this summer, it wasn’t a half-hearted gamble. Edmonton loaded him up with a three-year deal with a coach’s option for a fourth, Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic reports.
The total money is unclear, but that’s certainly quite the guarantee for a bench boss who didn’t make it through training camp during his last return attempt with the Blue Jackets. Babcock, a three-time Stanley Cup Finalist and one-time winner with the Red Wings in 2008, hasn’t coached an NHL game since before the COVID-19 pandemic, having been fired by the Maple Leafs early in the abbreviated 2019-20 campaign.