Knoblauch's rep taking a hit, but Babcock and his winning Oilers have much to prove

It’s hard not to be a bit giddy if you’re an Edmonton Oilers fan right now.

No NHL team has a higher points percentage than the Oilers at .833, with 15 points in the standings after nine games, based on seven wins, one regulation loss and one overtime loss.

Three Edmonton Oilers are in the top six for NHL scoring, Connor McDavid leading the way with 26 points, then Evan Bouchard tied for second with 19 points and Leon Draisaitl tied for sixth with 16 points.

Then there’s goalie Devon Levi with a strong-to-sensational run of games in net, and new coach Mike Babcock winning praise around the NHL for getting the Oilers to play better defence than the team did last year. Babcock’s name is even being sung in Toronto, where host Matt Marchese of the Fan Hockey Show said this week, “For Edmonton, this train keeps rolling… You start to wonder, like, why it didn’t work for them early in the season in years past? And why even with a shortened training camp, they’ve turned this thing around? And you can look at 97, you can look at 29, you can look at Bouchard as well, and all of this, and just say like, ‘Hey, this group bringing in Mike Babcock looks like it was the right move.’ But it’s a motivated group because they were part of the decision process.”

At the same time as Babcock’s rep is on the rebound, the reputation of former Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch is taking a hit.

For example, On Oilers Now, long-time Knoblauch booster Bob Stauffer pointed out that the Oilers are doing much better in all kinds of key defensive metrics this year, such as limiting slot opportunities and odd-man rushes. “This is significant,” Stauffer said. “And I think respectfully — and I don’t mean to disparage Kris Knoblauch and the work that that staff did — but I think it’s a little bit of a reflection of the focus for Mike Babcock and (associate coach) DJ Smith.”

Stauffer asked Oilers GM Stan Bowman if the Oilers looked like a different team just now.

“Yeah, I would say our attention to detail and our execution on that has been excellent this year,” Bowman said. “It’s not that we didn’t want to try to do that, but the ability to actually implement it was pretty inconsistent last year. For whatever reason, whether it was the players or the details or whatever it was, it didn’t translate on the ice as much as we talked about it. Now we’re seeing the things that we talk about actually happening on the ice.

Bowman added, “It looks like a well-structured group right now. So we’re just looking for repeatability now. I think we’ve shown we can do it. Now the challenge is to continue to do it.”

1. Of course, Bowman and Stauffer are just two of the many who are noticing the difference between Babcock’s Oilers so far this year and Knoblauch’s Oilers of last season. Many have been far stronger and harsher in their critique of Knoblauch’s work last year.

But Knoblauch’s two runs to the Stanley Cup Final speak for themselves. He was a good coach here and at times an excellent one. He was what the Oilers needed in that moment back in November 2023 when he was hired. He led the team to long stretches of excellent regular season play, some glorious playoff series wins, to two Conference championships, and just shy of two Stanley Cup wins.

2. I like that Bowman made clear that the challenge for the Oilers is to show they can continue to play the structured game that Babcock and Smith want from the players.

As positive as the start under Babcock has been, we can recall that there were other even better streaks of play for the Oilers under Knoblauch, and a few of those streaks happened as recently as last season.

If we break the season down into 10 game segments (with 12-game segments for games 71 to 82 each season), we see that in Knoblauch’s first season as coach, Edmonton won ten straight games for a 100% points percentage from games 31 to 40.

In his second season, the Oilers went on a run of eight wins and two losses from games 21 to 30.

Even last year, the team had a solid run, winning seven of ten games from games 31 to 40.

3. If we dig a dig deeper, and look at Grade A shots for and against the Oilers in the Knoblauch era, we see that his teams often did better than Babcock’s Oilers have done in the first nine games of 2026-27.

If we include the first nine games under Babcock, there are 25 approx. 10-game segments to compare here from October 2023 to October 2026.

Babcock’s Oilers so far are averaging 15.2 Grade A shots for per game while giving up 11.6 Grade A shots against, for a strong 56.8 Grade A shots percentage.

But Knoblauch’s teams had a higher Grade A shots percentage in 12 of their 10-game segments over the past three seasons, topping out at 63.5 Grade A shot percentage twice, once half-way through last year and once early in the 2023-24 season right after Knoblauch took over the team.

4. All that said, there’s a good reason that Knoblauch is no longer the Oilers coach. The team fell apart on defence last season. It left a bad taste.

In five of the eight 10-game segments, the Oilers gave up more than 14 Grade A shots per game, bottoming out in games 31 to 40 last year when they gave up 15.8 per game.

Yes, Knoblauch often had the Oilers defending well in his first two years. There were six 10-game segments over those two seasons where the Oilers gave up fewer than 11 Grade A shots against per game. That’s a lower number and stingier defence than the 11.6 Grade A shots against per game Babcock’s Oilers have so far allowed.

5. Overall, Babcock is off to a strong start with the Oilers. The excellent defensive habits we now see could well push Edmonton deep into the playoffs this year, especially if it’s combined with solid goaltending.

But Knoblauch’s 2023-24 and 2024-25 Oilers had great runs of championship-level defensive play, as well as some runs of strong goaltending. Those two teams didn’t just fluke their way into the 2024 and 2025 Stanley Cup Finals. They earned it.

Now it’s the job of Babcock’s Oilers to earn it. If he and his team do so, that will be the moment to celebrate.

As songwriter Donald Allen Schlitz Jr. once noted: “You never count your money while you’re sitting at the table. They’ll be time enough for counting when the dealing’s done.”