Worrying update emerges on Connor McDavid after Mike Babcock's potential Oilers hiring

TSN's Darren Dreger reported Monday that Edmonton is consulting with the NHLPA about potentially hiring the 63-year-old coach, who hasn't worked an NHL bench since being fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs midseason in 2019.

The conversation around Babcock has centered almost entirely on whether the NHLPA will clear him after the Columbus phone incident in 2023.

That framing treats this as a character question. It is actually a contract question.

McDavid signed a two-year, $25 million extension last October at $12.5 million per season.

That number is roughly $4 to $5 million below what the open market would have paid him annually.

He becomes an unrestricted free agent after 2027-28.

That contract was a message. McDavid gave Bowman cap flexibility and a firm two-year runway to build a winner.

Every roster move, every coaching decision, every dollar spent between now and that expiration date either justifies McDavid's bet or proves it was misplaced.

Hiring a coach who resigned from Columbus before coaching a single game and hasn't run an NHL bench in nearly seven years is a strange way to honor that investment.

Babcock's resume is historic - 700-plus wins, a Stanley Cup, two Olympic golds. Nobody disputes the track record.

But the game moved on without him, and Edmonton's window did not get wider while it waited.

The Oilers lost Peter Laviolette to Los Angeles on Monday. Vegas has blocked access to Bruce Cassidy.

The candidate pool is shrinking, and desperation coaching hires rarely age well.

McDavid didn't take a discount so Edmonton could gamble on a reclamation project behind the bench.

He took it so the front office could build the best possible team around him. If Babcock is the answer Bowman arrives at, the louder question becomes whether McDavid sees a second contract in Edmonton at all.