The Edmonton Oilers have a major problem with Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl

Mike Babcock didn't waste time laying it on the table for Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

According to Elliotte Friedman's 32 Thoughts, posted Monday, the new Oilers coach challenged his two franchise players directly in a meeting.

Friedman put it plainly: "So, we talked about this, about what happened in that meeting, and they basically admitted it, that Mike Babcock challenged them and said, you guys are as much the problem."

Not exactly a honeymoon opening line for a new head coach.

But Babcock has never been the type to soften a message, and Edmonton just handed him the keys anyway.

He was hired June 23, replacing the previous staff after another long playoff push came up empty.

Edmonton's season wrapped April 30 with a 5-2 loss to Anaheim, closing out a six-game playoff stretch where McDavid managed six points and Draisaitl put up ten.

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Those numbers sit awkwardly next to what McDavid and Draisaitl did over the regular season. McDavid finished with 138 points across 82 games. Draisaitl posted 97 points in 65 games, missing time along the way.

So how does a coach tell two of the best players alive that they're part of the problem? Carefully, or not at all, most would say.

Babcock clearly picked the second option.

It's the kind of message that either galvanizes a room or cracks it wide open, and there isn't much middle ground once it's out there.

GM Stan Bowman, who's held the job since July 2024, signed off on this hire knowing exactly what he was getting. Babcock's track record includes turning around rosters, but also friction that followed him out of Toronto.

Here's the editorial take: calling out McDavid and Draisaitl publicly, even secondhand through a meeting that leaked to Friedman, is a gamble that only pays off if the results follow immediately.

Cap-wise, the stakes are enormous. McDavid carries a 12,500,000 dollar hit. Draisaitl sits at 14,000,000. Ownership isn't paying that money to hear about accountability speeches that go nowhere.

Think of it like handing a race car driver a lecture on braking too late after he's already won four championships. Sometimes the message lands. Sometimes the driver just tunes it out.

Babcock's first real test comes when training camp opens and the room finds out whether that meeting changed anything, or whether it's just another headline from another Edmonton offseason.