BREAKING NEWS: McDavid’s Next Chapter Just Began With One Phone Call And Nobody In Hockey Saw It Coming. What will happen next?

So, a year from now, a year from now, we’re going to be sitting here asking you, “What’s your plans with Conor McDavid? Are you going to trade him? Are you going to sign him? What’s going to happen?” Uh, how much does the McDavid window provide a like how much is that a compass for this organization right now? How does it does it touch every move you make at this? >> Um, well, well, we’re trying to win, Mark.

I mean, we’re trying to find a way to win and we’ve been doing that. So like the those questions are more for Connor as far as what what his plans are and his thoughts are. We’re on the same p we’re on the same page as Connor. We want to win too. So all the moves that we make are geared towards trying to win the cup next year.

We’re not building for like I said four years from now. So, um I think that it lines up very in in the same um parallel path where Connor wants to win and we want to win. So, that that’s the way we look at it. You know, we can only do that is build this team up the best we can with whether it’s trades or signings or development of players from within.

It’s all with the hopes that it’s going to take us to a better result than we have now. Stan Bowman picked up the phone. That one action changes everything about how we need to read this coaching search right now. Not a source saying Edmonton has interest. Not a report linking a name to the organization for the third time in 2 weeks. An actual phone call.

Bowman to Biruby. Two people on opposite ends of a line actually talking through what a partnership could look like. That is the moment a coaching search stops being speculation and starts being real. And it matters more than people are giving it credit for right now. Edmonton has been connected to names for weeks.

Lists have been made. Connections have been drawn. Reporters have been sourcing and filing and updating. But there is a significant difference between a name appearing in a story and a name receiving a direct call from the general manager of the franchise. One of those things is noise. The other one is signal.

Bowman just sent a very clear signal. Think about what it actually takes to get to that point. Someone inside the organization has to look at the board, look at the available candidates, and make a judgment call that this particular person deserves a real conversation. Not a quiet background check, not a casual mention to an agent, a direct line.

That kind of decision does not happen randomly. It happens because someone has already done enough internal evaluation to decide that Craig Barubi belongs in the serious conversation. Now think about what Biruby actually represents as a coaching candidate because the resume here is not ordinary. What he did in St.

Louis does not get enough credit in these discussions. The Blues in early 2019 were not just struggling. They were historically bad. Sitting at the absolute bottom of the entire league in January, looking like a franchise heading into a full reset, not a playoff race. Barubi came in mid-season, walked into that locker room and did something that almost never happens in professional hockey.

He turned it completely around. Not slightly, not enough to squeak into the playoffs and lose in the first round. All the way Stanley Cup champions by June. That kind of transformation does not happen because a new coach draws up better power play schemes. It happens because the person behind the bench fundamentally changes the environment the players are operating in.

He changed the standard. He made the margin for error smaller. He created a structure where everyone in that room understood exactly what was expected of them every single night and exactly what the consequences looked like when they fell short. That is not a system thing. That is a coaching identity. And that identity travels with him wherever he goes.

Edmonton needs that identity right now more than almost anything else. This is not a roster in transition. Conor McDavid is not a project. Leandre Sadel is not a project. These are two of the most complete players in the world operating in what should be the absolute prime of their careers. The Oilers were one win away from a Stanley Cup title.

One game, the talent in that building is not the problem and has not been the problem. What Edmonton has searched for across multiple coaching cycles now is the presence behind the bench that translates elite talent into consistent performance over the length of a playoff run.

Not for one series, not for two, all the way through, every round, against every style of opponent, under every kind of pressure. That is where the Oilers have come up short before. And that is exactly the problem a coach like Barubi is built to solve. His reputation inside the league is specific. Players who have been around him describe a coach who removes all the guesswork. You know the structure.

You know the expectations. You know where you stand. There is no reading between the lines. No wondering whether tonight is the night the standard gets relaxed just a little. It does not. Every game the bar is in the same place and every player in that locker room knows it. For a team that has shown the ability to drift across full seasons, that kind of clarity is not a minor upgrade.

It is a foundational shift in how the group operates day-to-day. Now, there are other names still genuinely in this search. Bruce Cassidy has been near the center of it for a reason. There are candidates being evaluated that have not fully surfaced publicly yet. Bowman is doing what a smart general manager does, which means he is not waiting for one path to fully resolve itself before exploring what else is available.

That is the right approach and the Burubi call is actually proof that he understands the urgency of doing this correctly. Edmonton cannot afford to run a slow search. McDavid is under contract and performing at a level that franchises build entire decades around. Dreadel adds a second layer of that same pressure.

The window here is real and everyone inside that organization knows that no window stays open forever regardless of how talented the players inside it are. The next few years represent an opportunity that the Oilers have a genuine obligation to maximize. Slow walking the coaching hire while waiting on one specific scenario to either come together or fall apart is not responsible roster management.

It is how organizations waste the best years of a generational player. The Barubi call tells you that Bowman understands this. He is not parking the search. He is running multiple tracks at the same time and making sure that if any single door closes, there is already a real conversation happening behind the next one.

And for Biruby himself, this is not a simple decision either. His reputation generates real interest around the league and he has options. He is not going to take the first call that comes his way and say yes without thinking through whether the situation actually sets him up to succeed. He is going to look at the roster construction, the infrastructure around the bench, the organizational commitment to winning.

He is going to want to understand whether the people running the franchise share his vision for what this team should look like and how it should play. Edmonton has to sell itself to him as much as he has to impress the organization. That is how it works when you are pursuing someone with genuine leverage in the marketplace.

Which means the next step in the story is the one that actually tells us something. The first call happened that moved Biruby from a loosely connected name to someone Bowman personally reached out to. But it is the second conversation, the formal sitdown, the real interview process that tells you whether Edmonton is seriously pursuing this or just responsibly covering their options.

Whoever coaches this team next is stepping into a situation where the honeymoon ends before it starts. The expectations in Edmonton are not going to build slowly over a season of evaluation. They are there on day one. They are baked into every press conference question, every locker room check-in, every game that gets played against a playoff contender.

The next head coach of the Oilers is being measured against a Stanley Cup standard almost immediately. And that is just the reality of the environment. Barubi has stood in high pressure moments before. He has taken over a team in crisis and come out as a champion. He has been behind a bench when everything was on the line and he knows what it takes to hold a group together when the margin for error disappears completely.

That experience does not guarantee anything in Edmonton. Nothing does. But it means he would not be arriving without context. He has been in the fire before and he came through it. The phone call happened. Bowman made the move. Now both sides have to decide how far they want to take it.

Edmonton has one of the most compelling rosters in the league, waiting for the right voice to walk into that room. Whether that voice belongs to Craig Barubi is still being determined. But he is no longer just a name. He is a conversation that has already started.