The Edmonton Oilers will welcome a new coach this fall. Mike Babcock will observe a roster heavy with veterans and just two NHL contributors (Vasily Podkolzin, Matt Savoie) age 25 or under from last year’s team. The club had seven players 32 or over last season, and is looking to marble youth throughout the lineup in the season to come.This means opportunity for young players in the system. Based on Babcock’s established past, can we identify a group of young prospects with the best chance to impress? Here’s a look.Babcock in 2015, TorontoOilers fans would be wise to observe training camp and preseason closely, but also be aware that roster changes will come during the season. In October 2015, just before the regular season began, Babcock sat down with TSN’s Darren Dreger for a conversation. Babcock had observed the team, made his decisions and was ready to start the regular season with his hand-picked roster.He left the door open for changes on the roster: “I’ve come to lots of conclusions, but what we’re going to do is we’re going to find out if my conclusions are right. In other words, in the short term, right now, they can trick you a little bit, but not over the long term. The NHL is too hard. It’s just too hard. It exposes you every night.”In 2015-16, rookies were rare early on. For Toronto’s opening-night roster, defenceman Scott Harrington dressed and would play 15 games during the year. Not dressed, but destined for recall from the Toronto Marlies were William Nylander and Kasperi Kapanen (both 19), Zach Hyman (23 and acquired over the summer of 2015), Connor Brown (21) and others.The Maple Leafs were in a different competitive cycle, having missed the playoffs in 2014 and 2015, and destined to do it again in 2015-16 under Babcock. The long recall list from the 2015-16 season shows Babcock’s willingness to deploy young players with and without draft pedigree. The watershed moment for the franchise would take place in 2016-17, when Auston Matthews joined the team, and Toronto’s offence increased by more than 50 goals.In Edmonton, the top-end talents have been on the roster for 11 years or more. Babcock will need to help in finding strong support players among the group arriving in camp this fall.PossessionBabcock was a puck possession coach in 2015 and will be in Edmonton in 2026-27. In a conversation with Maclean’s magazine in October 2015, he gave his view of the possession game. “I’m a big believer that you don’t want to play defence. Having the puck is way more fun, playing in the offensive zone is way more fun. So let’s build a structure and habits so that we can do that. If you don’t work, if you don’t execute quick in the [defensive] zone, if you don’t slow people down through the neutral zone, you can’t be on offence. I call our end the work zone, neutral ice, the speed zone, and their end the fun zone. Let’s figure out a way to get in it.”