Fresh off signing contract, Oilers forward sends strong message to Mike Babcock

The 23-year-old forward, back on a two-year deal worth $1.2 million per season, told Sports1440 he wants to be trusted more and used in bigger spots. He named Jason Dickinson as the teammate who showed him how to handle those minutes.

On its own that sounds like boilerplate from a fringe roster player. The timing and the audience are what change it.

Dach arrived in the March deadline deal that also brought Dickinson, with Andrew Mangiapane and a conditional 2027 first-round pick going to Chicago. He is a bottom-six body, not a guaranteed lineup piece, and Edmonton has only about $4.7 million in cap room left to add competition.

Babcock was hired in June to demand accountability the previous staff would not. His career has been defined by exactly this axis: who earns his trust, who gets the hard minutes, and who pushes back when the answer is no.

Plenty of players have lost that argument with Babcock over the years. Dach is doing the opposite in public before training camp even opens.

He is volunteering for the buy-in Babcock is built to demand, naming a veteran template in Dickinson rather than lobbying for a role he has not earned.

This is the earliest tangible sign of how Babcock reshapes a depth player's behavior, not a star's. Stars adjust quietly; role players either adapt or vanish from the sheet.

Dach, cheap and expendable, is telling his new coach he understands the terms before anyone asks.

Whether the ice time follows is the season's first small test of whether buy-in actually earns anything under this staff, or whether Babcock still rewards the players who say the right things.

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