Edmonton Oilers are under fire after former player comes forward with accusations

The club has not confirmed it.

Commodore, a Stanley Cup winner with the 2006 Carolina Hurricanes, has spent weeks attacking Edmonton's hiring of head coach Mike Babcock.

On Thursday evening, he posted that the organization had contacted him with what he described as a threatening email.

Edmonton has not responded publicly, and Commodore has not published the letter.

In defamation law, in Alberta and across most of the United States, truth is a complete defence.

A plaintiff who sues invites the defendant to prove the statement, and that proof happens in discovery, where lawyers compel documents and sworn testimony.

Commodore's lawyers would have every reason to seek the NHL's internal review of Babcock's 2023 conduct with the Columbus Blue Jackets, along with whatever the club retained.

None of that material has ever been made public.

The executive who would authorize any such action is Stan Bowman, named Edmonton's general manager and executive vice president of hockey operations on July 24, 2024.

Bowman resigned from the Chicago Blackhawks in 2021 after an internal investigation found he neglected a report of s***al a**ault.

In March 2025, The Athletic reported that Bowman filed a motion to quash a subpoena seeking his deposition in a lawsuit connected to his Chicago tenure.

An organization whose top hockey executive has moved to avoid testifying is poorly positioned to drag a critic into a courtroom where testimony is the entire point.

That is the tell. Lawyers send letters to end conversations, because litigation starts them.

So the email, if it exists, is probably the ceiling of Edmonton's response rather than the floor.

The precedent belongs to all thirty-two teams. A club can quiet a retired player with paper it never intends to file.

Commodore, having read the letter, appears to know that.

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