Hi everyone. During the pandemic, I started a newsletter on the Puck Soup Patreon when Yahoo decided they wanted to get out of the “NHL takes” game. Now, alas, it seems as though Elite Prospects is doing the same. And so I come to you with this: Takes in a different place than usual.

It comes at an interesting time, because there are a lot of things to have takes on that are not just, “Did you see which goalie absolutely blew it in the Cup Final last night?” For example, the Edmonton Oilers are at least “putting it out there” that they want to hire Mike Babcock to shepherd them through what would potentially be the final year(s?) of the Connor McDavid era in Edmonton.

Remember Mike Babcock? From the last time he coached an NHL game? I looked it up and it was two weeks after “The Mandalorian” premiered on Disney+. Seven years later, our little friend Grogu was in a deeply mediocre movie. And sure, Columbus tried to hire him that one time but he got in trouble for trying to look at his players’ high level in Royal Match. He hasn’t been in the NHL since then, and before that he did lots of other objectionable stuff. So this is a coach who’s been out of the Show for a long time, and wasn’t particularly well-liked by his players before that.

Now, the reportage says Oilers brass — whoever that is — went to the team’s core players and got their blessing to even start talking to Babcock, and things have apparently progressed from there. It feels to me a little bit like a trial balloon, because who in their right mind would just hire Babcock without giving the public (i.e., the season-ticket holders) runway to let their voices be heard? If you said, “The same team that hired Stan Bowman,” I guess you got me there. And of course you want your franchise players to sign off on this kind of thing.

But the Oilers’ problem, apart from what we all presume is a ticking clock on McDavid’s tenure, is that they have given entirely too much power to the players in the first place. The coach they just fired? He was McDavid’s coach in the OHL. The president of hockey ops? He was McDavid’s agent for years. He endorsed Bowman’s — tacitly if not explicitly — plan for the future by signing an extension last summer. Those guys have not done the very best of jobs. And that’s fine, except it’s wasting whatever’s left of McDavid and Leon Draisaitl’s primes, and those are two of the very best primes in league history.

Let’s put it another way: Wayne Gretzky is arguably the best player ever, and when they let him coach the Coyotes, it did not go well. Many of the reasons why probably extend well beyond the Xs and Os that Gretzky would presumably have figured out (ownership, the roster, etc.) but it just goes to show that Gretzky’s quality as a player did not extend to his ability to effectively teach the game to a bunch of NHL players. Same may be true of McDavid here. “Connor, do you want us to hire your agent?” Yup. “Do you want us to hire your old coach?” Definitely. “Do you want us to hire Stan Bowman?” Go ahead. “Do you want us to hire Mike Babcock?” That would be fine.

I understand you want everyone on the same page and you want to keep your best player happy. But maybe it’s time for the Oilers to stop asking what McDavid thinks. Because what he thinks, apparently, walked them up to the point where they’re asking him about Mike Babcock.

Compounding problems, no? Seems like a broken process over there. Maybe that’s unavoidable given the gravity of McDavid’s talent, because if he’s not happy, no one’s happy. Plus, I’d say the glory days for this version of the Oilers were already over anyway, because of the Tristan Jarry trade, who’s running the front office, and so on. But who on earth saw this coming? If you thought the last game Mike Babcock coached was a long time ago, you’re not gonna believe how long ago the last time he won anything of note. Even if you’re gonna give him credit for the 2014 gold medal, that was 12-plus years ago. When Connor McDavid was still a year away from being draft-eligible.

I get that they are desperate. They need to make good on the promise of two straight Cup Finals and a pair of future Hall of Famers who probably need a title to cement their legacy. The number of “generational talents” in NHL history without their name on the Cup is extremely limited, and history will not look kindly on the guys who helped build the teams that did little to nothing with more than a decade of elite production from two of the best players ever.

The problem is: It looks increasingly likely that you can include McDavid on the list of guys who contributed to the problem.

The good news, according to additional reportage, is that if the Oilers do intend to hire Babcock, the NHLPA has asked the league to formally investigate the coach’s actions when he was still with Columbus. Is that threat alone enough to deter Edmonton? If you’re an Oilers fan, I have a guess about what you’re rooting for there. But the way this organization has operated the last few years, I’m also not optimistic.