Zach Hyman just handed Mark Messier an open invitation to the one place Messier built into legend, and the timing is pure soap-opera tension. One day after the Hall of Famer called the Oilers’ hiring of Mike Babcock “horrified” territory, Hyman stood there and said the door is unlocked. Come see the positivity. Come see the work. The guy who used to wear No. 11 is telling the guy whose No. 11 hangs in the rafters that the room feels different now.
I respect the hell out of that answer. Hyman played five seasons under Babcock in Toronto. He knows the man. He also knows what Messier means in Edmonton, which is why the number stays retired and why Hyman never tried to claim it. So when Messier unloaded on ESPN’s opening-night media call, Hyman did not fire back with loyalty tests or cheap shots. He offered a visit.
“Listen, everybody has their own opinion,” Hyman said. “[Messier] was No. 11. I was No. 11 for the longest time, and I couldn’t wear the jersey here because he’s revered here. He’s a legend with the Oilers and in hockey, obviously. So, I think that everybody in the game respects him. I think if he really wants to see what’s going on firsthand, he’s more than welcome to come here. I think Oilers fans love him. There’s a lot of excitement. There’s a lot of positivity here. Nothing but good is happening right now.”
That is a player protecting the present without erasing the past. Messier spent 12 seasons in Edmonton, won five Cups there, and left a standard that still shapes how this franchise talks about itself. When he says he is “absolutely shocked they hired him” and that the stories he heard from “very good, reputable, character people about the way they were treated” left him “horrified,” those words carry weight because the resume behind them is real. The history with Babcock is public and ugly enough that the NHL had to investigate after Columbus and still clear him for employment. Johan Franzen’s accounts, the Marner incident in Toronto, Brendan Shanahan calling the tactics neither appropriate nor acceptable, the phone-camera request that ended the Blue Jackets stint before a single game. None of that vanishes because training camp feels good.
The Stars Already Signed the Permission Slip
Here is the part Messier’s horror has to live with: the Oilers did not spring Babcock on an unsuspecting roster. Before the June 23 hire, Babcock sat with Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl, and Hyman. Player buy-in was cited as central to both the decision and Babcock accepting the job. Knoblauch had just been fired after a first-round exit to Anaheim, even after guiding Edmonton to back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals and posting a 135-77-21 regular-season mark. The franchise wanted a different voice. The three most important skaters signed off.
Hyman has been blunt about the early returns. Media heat is landing on Babcock, which he says frees the players. “I haven’t heard anything about me, Leon or Connor, it’s about ‘Babs,’ which, obviously I think he can handle that. I just know from a player standpoint, there’s a lot of excitement with training camp, how preseason has gone, how we’ve worked in those games. I think that you’re seeing changes on the ice, and it feels good as a player, and it’s all positive.”
That is the closed-room argument in plain English. The guys who have to play for Babcock every night are describing structure and energy, not dread. McDavid has pointed to a proper gap between coaching staff and players and said camp has gone well. Babcock, for his part, called Messier a legend and a hard two-way leader and said he has nothing but respect. Nobody is pretending the past is clean. They are arguing the present is workable.
I keep the ledger honest. Babcock’s resume still includes a Stanley Cup in Detroit and two Olympic golds with Canada. He also has a trail of former players who describe verbal attacks and privacy violations that got him fired or forced out. The league’s June statement that there was “no current basis to restrict his employment” is a legal green light, not a character endorsement. Edmonton bet that star buy-in plus on-ice results would outrun the noise. Hyman’s invitation is the bet made flesh.
Legend Versus Locker Room Is the Real Series
Messier is not wrong to be sick about the process. Asking players to interview and green-light their own coach blurs lines that used to stay clean. A franchise icon has every right to say the stories he heard make the hire indefensible. But once McDavid, Draisaitl, and Hyman took the meeting and stayed on board, the argument shifted from “should they have hired him” to “can the room make it work.” Hyman just moved that argument onto the ice and handed Messier a ticket.
If Messier walks into Rogers Place and the positivity Hyman describes is real, the conversation changes. If the old patterns reappear, every warning Messier issued becomes prophecy and the Oilers own the fallout. That is the only test that matters now. Back-to-back Finals appearances raised the bar so high that a first-round exit felt like failure. Firing the coach who got them there and handing the bench to the most polarizing available option is a high-wire act. Hyman is saying the wire is holding.
I am not asking Messier to retract a word. The man earned the right to be horrified. I am saying Hyman’s answer is the cleanest possible counter: respect the legend, defend the room, and put the proof in plain sight. Number 11 is retired for a reason. The former No. 11 wearer just told the original to come check the product himself. That invitation is the whole story. Everything else is noise until somebody walks through the door.
