LOS ANGELES — If you don’t know who Owen Michaels is, don’t feel bad.
Barely anyone inside the Edmonton Oilers dressing room knew who he was either, three weeks ago.
Then as new head coach Mike Babcock ran through daily video clips after the pre-season games, showing the moments where players were executing his system — and the places where they were not — everyone started to notice something.
All the good clips had this No. 43 guy in them, doing everything right, every day. Like, who the hell is 43?
Owen who?!? Michaels?
Is that Jack’s kid…?
How could a guy fresh out of college, they must have wondered, be so advanced in Babcock’s system, when it is completely new to all of us?
Well, here’s why:
“Maybe a little bit of a cheat code,” admitted Pat Ferschweiler, Michaels' head coach for the past three seasons at Western Michigan University and perhaps a bit of a Babcock disciple, “is that I was in Detroit's system with Grand Rapids when Babs was the head coach of Detroit.
“Some of our terminology, our phrasing, our systems, our thoughts on what's important, how to win… There are some similarities there that certainly make Owen feel comfortable and at home in the systems and the things that Babs is talking about. They're important here (at UWM). I think similar things are valued there by coach Babcock.”
It's crazy to think that an undrafted 24-year-old who’d never set foot inside Rogers Place — or played a game above the NCAA level — would have any kind of advantage over all the other players vying for the one or two jobs that were available at Oilers Training Camp, 2026.
But Michaels did, and he sharply recognized it right away.
“It’s made the transition a lot easier for me, being more comfortable with some of the things that are being said. The systems, the terminology, just being familiar a little bit with it,” Michaels said. “A lot of credit to Babs for being so great to me. Giving me an opportunity, helping me out and sharing his wealth of knowledge.”
So we’ll put that down as a happy coincidence. A nice break for a guy who nobody thought had a chance of making the NHL on his first try.
But how do you explain the rest of it?
The part about Michaels leading the Oilers in defensive zone draws through the opening five games, with the best winning percentage (64.5%)?
Or the fact he’s taken the most shorthanded faceoffs for Edmonton so far, with a winning percentage (69.2%) just south of McDavid’s (70%)?
Sure, he’s the team’s only right-handed centreman. But still, in the NHL, faceoffs are the domain of the experienced.
Kids don’t just walk into the league and dominate the dot.
“You either have it or you don't,” said ex-Oiler Craig MacTavish, a master at the craft back in the day. “There are many well-documented cases of guys getting better in the faceoff circle — (Sidney) Crosby would be the prime example of somebody that came in as a young kid that didn't have a great face-off percentage, but worked at it.
“But there are guys that just have the necessary skill set to win draws: timing, strength, strategy… (Michaels) looks like he's got it.”
Just for kicks, let’s hear a story about MacTavish’s first big faceoff win, in a game back in 1979.
“It was my first game, back at the (Philadelphia) Spectrum. I didn't play in the first period, but I got out for an O-zone faceoff in the second period,” recounts MacTavish, one of the game’s better storytellers. “I beat Mel Bridgman, it goes back to Rick Smith, he shot it, and I think it was Don Marcotte who tipped it in.
“I've been in the league for five seconds, and I’ve got a point. I went to center ice, and I'm kind of oblivious that it was Mel Bridgman who I beat in the faceoff circle. The puck drops, and Bridgman just punched me in the face as hard as he could. So off we went for a couple roughing minors.
“Welcome to the league.”
The definition of toughness has changed over the years, of course. Today, it’s all about thinking the game, and executing at the high, high speed at which today’s hockey is played.
“(Michaels') magic is his repeatability and his competitiveness. Those are his elite qualities,” Ferschweiler said. “He's an NHL player in all those things that you said: A good skater, a good stick, smart enough, big enough.. But his real neat qualities are his ability to repeat his performance, shift in and shift out, and the fact he is hyper-competitive.”
“I think maybe at a younger age (faceoffs) was something I cared a lot about, and was able to kind of get an upper hand on some guys,” Michaels said. “It kind of goes unappreciated at some levels. But everywhere I've been, it’s something I've always worked on, taking the extra time.”
And, he’s popped two goals already in the first five games.
As Edmonton’s only right-shot centre, things are going to have to take a serious downturn in Michaels’ game once the injured veterans return for him to be sent to Bakersfield.
He is, undoubtedly, the surprise of the young season in Edmonton.
Not down in Western Michigan, however.
“He's just a young man that works on his craft,” Ferschweiler said. “He's never been a leading scorer of a team, not in a long time anyway. But he is detail-oriented.
"He cares about everything, every day."
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