Just sharing the section re: his tenure with the Leafs
Babcock’s success earned him one of the most prominent gigs in hockey as head coach of Team Canada. He won gold at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and 2014 Sochi Olympics. His international experience further bolstered his resume, and the Leafs signed him to an eight-year, $50 million deal in May 2015. It positioned Babcock at the premier job in one of hockey’s biggest fish bowls, and his deal was also heralded as an important benchmark in the fight to improve coaching salaries. At $6.25 million per season, Babcock reportedly made more than double any other NHL head coach at the time, and more than all but one Leafs player.
A little more than a month after signing with the Leafs, Babcock tried to influence who the team would take with its first pick in the 2015 NHL Draft, according to multiple team sources. Mark Hunter, the Leafs assistant general manager, lobbied for Mitchell Marner of the OHL’s London Knights, which Hunter co-owns. Babcock made it clear to others in the team’s hockey operations that he wanted a different player. Despite Babcock’s objections, the Leafs selected Marner fourth overall.
After the first period of Marner’s first preseason game, Babcock approached him in the tunnel and abruptly told him he was being sent back to junior — rather than sharing the news in a private meeting. Babcock’s approach, relaying the disappointing news after a single period, was viewed by some in the organization as unprofessional and callous.
Later that fall, in October 2015, Frankie Corrado was picked up off waivers by the Leafs from Vancouver. Corrado was excited to play for Babcock, knowing he had a reputation for helping players reach their potential.
“I have no idea who you are,” Corrado remembers Babcock telling him when they first met. He told Corrado to meet him at his office at the Leafs training facility the next day at 8 a.m. Corrado arrived early and knocked on Babcock’s door, but the coach told him he didn’t have time to see him. Corrado waited for an hour and a half, but Babcock never made time for him.
Corrado saw little ice time with the Leafs over the next few weeks, spending most games as a healthy scratch. But during practices, Babcock would quietly instruct him to go first in drills, so he’d have to push past star players in line — breaking hockey decorum — while awkwardly trying to explain that he was doing so per the coach’s instruction. Corrado felt Babcock was attempting to “sewer” him with his teammates.
Corrado said he later experienced panic attacks and threw up regularly before games because of anxiety, which he never experienced before playing for Babcock.
“It was cruel. It went on way too long and it did way too much damage to me,” he said. “I think he loves f—ing with people’s heads. I really do.”
Early in the 2016-17 season center Peter Holland lost his position to minor league call-up Byron Froese. Hoping to discuss the demotion, Holland went to Leafs practice early. He found Babcock eating his breakfast, and the coach told him he’d find him as soon as he was done. Nearly an hour later Babcock called him into his office.
“You’re here to remind me that you’re still on the team. But you’ve lost your job, and all you can do right now is show up in practice,” Holland recalls Babcock saying. “Now tell me what you came here to tell me, so you can go home and tell your family and your agent that you said what you wanted to say.”
Before a Western Canada road trip that November, Leafs general manager Lou Lamoriello told Holland he’d be staying back while the team worked out a trade for him to a market where he could get more playing time. At a news conference in Edmonton the next day, Babcock gave reporters the impression it was Holland’s decision for him to not travel with the team.
“(Holland) met with Lou, had his agent on the phone and decided he wasn’t coming on the trip,” Babcock said.
Holland said Lamoriello treated him professionally, but Babcock did not. “I’ve played for hard-ass coaches who I really like and respect — because they still treat you like a person. My experience with Babs was that he doesn’t treat you like a human being,” Holland said.
Early in Babcock’s tenure with the Leafs, after team trainers completed player evaluations, ranking work ethic on a three-level scale — red, yellow and green — he called a meeting with players and the team’s training staff and projected the red reviews on a wall for all to see. Training staffers said they had been led to believe their evaluations would be confidential.
A similar incident involved Marner once he returned to the Leafs during the 2016 season. While the team was in New Jersey, Babcock made Marner rank his teammates from hardest to least-hardest working. Marner did, believing it was a confidential discussion. He placed himself at the bottom of the list. Babcock then took the list to several of the other players who were also at the bottom of Marner’s list. Afterward, two veteran players — Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak — confronted Babcock about the incident; they took particular issue with the coach treating a rookie that way. Babcock later apologized to Marner.
In the Leafs office, Babcock was known to chastise support staff workers if his routine was derailed or the environment didn’t meet his standards, former players and employees said. He often focused on one person in the office each day and hounded them repeatedly.
“When you work for Babs everyone is on their toes. No one is spared,” said one former staffer.
While coaching U of S, Babcock pushed back on reports that his leadership style was unsuited for the modern game. He blamed social media for unfair criticism and called the characterization of the incident with Marner “a complete farce.” He justified the ranking exercise by noting how well Marner played for the Leafs, telling Sportsnet: “Mitch Marner played great for Mike Babcock.”
“Anything in my life that I’ve done that I should be feeling bad about and I should apologize for, I’m good with that,” Babcock said. “I have to own it and I should do that. But some of the math doesn’t add up. It just doesn’t.”
by malliabu
32 Comments
What a jackass.
Jesus christ, what a prick.
So how did the Blue Jackets miss all this stuff?
The guys just a total loser
Mike, if it smells like shit everywhere you go you should probably check your own shoe. No one has a good Babcock story, social media isn’t the problem.
And Marner played well in spite of you, not because of you.
The fact that Babcock never wanted Marner is fascinating. We can all agree that Babs’ style is no longer a fit for the NHL (if it ever was to begin with). But, considering where Marner is and his lack of toughness come playoff time, Babs might have been right about that one. I would love to know who Babcock wanted instead.
Didn’t know that about Corrado. Poor guy 🙁
What a (Bab)Dick
Chastising the staff is the most egregious stuff. What a diva. “Boo hoo my routine was ruined”
So he’s a complete asshole, got it.
Damn shame too there was some legitimate excitement when he was hired, and our systems definitely improved… but anything good that happens to the Leafs comes with some cursed element.
What’s funnier is that Columbus didn’t learn from any of it. Talk about not doing your research lol
and all this would have been forgivable if he could just get us playoff success, but he couldn’t even do that…
what a train wreck
> Early in Babcock’s tenure with the Leafs, after team trainers completed player evaluations, ranking work ethic on a three-level scale — red, yellow and green — he called a meeting with players and the team’s training staff and projected the red reviews on a wall for all to see. Training staffers said they had been led to believe their evaluations would be confidential.
> Corrado saw little ice time with the Leafs over the next few weeks, spending most games as a healthy scratch. But during practices, Babcock would quietly instruct him to go first in drills, so he’d have to push past star players in line — breaking hockey decorum — while awkwardly trying to explain that he was doing so per the coach’s instruction. Corrado felt Babcock was attempting to “sewer” him with his teammates.
> He placed himself at the bottom of the list. Babcock then took the list to several of the other players who were also at the bottom of Marner’s list.
In all these examples, he’s not only souring his own relationship with the player, but he also wants to destroy any relationship the player will have with others and alienating them from everything. Its beyond cruel. This guy is deranged.
It’s actually so fked to think that this guy coached the first 3 seasons of the Core. Imagine being an 18/19 year old and MIKE BABCOCK is your coach. No wonder they wanted so much money. Why take a discount AND take shit from Babcock? Heck if I was in their shoes, I’d milk every penny from the organization.
Anyone else other than Keefe would have been the wrong choice at the time. They needed a players coach after taking shit for years from some POS. I know Keefe was here longer than what most people wanted, but I am absolutely certain that Keefe was well loved by the players and they wanted to fight for him, because at least he would treat them like humans.
So he was an unnecessary dick to Marner from the very first preseason game he played.
Sounds like Babcock is a hardass, who got to where he did honestly. Then got high sniffing his own fart, thinking he can do no wrong.
Unfortunately, most folks who get that proud have trouble coming back down, and would refuse to accept coming back down to where everyone else is.
My dad is in Dublin Ireland and Ran into babs at dinner last night
This dick deserves what he’s got. Even after all of that he still didn’t learn his lesson in CBJ. A person like that refuses to change and doesn’t belong in this league (or any). I can only feel sorry for his family members who have to deal with him regularly.
Wings fan coming in peace, this is where not doing your due diligence before a hire bites you in the ass.
Shanahan bolted from the Wings when Babcock took over, multiple star UFA refused to come to Det because of him (Suter/Parise). Det struggled to promote rookies that had potential to the next level.
The Wings didn’t win a cup because of Babcock, they won inspite of him. Even my grandma could take those Canadian teams to gold. Wings likely win more cups without him.
Especially what he did to Franzen in 2011 after the playoff performances he put on in 2008/2009.
If he was this bad, and I think he probably was (is), it’s a wonder word of previous actions of his didn’t get to the Leafs management personnel that hired him, or if it did, why they thought he was still okay to take on, especially with a younger group of players.
Looks bad on them, too.
What an absolute egotistical maniac. What a fucking cunt. A pure cunt. Fuck you babcock you’re a prick.
The people in this country better pray every day we never have a conscription
He is an mean insecure man
mike babcock’s genius was overrated.
he stepped into teams that were built for him and were already great. it’s no surprise he won a cup in 2008. that red wings team was still very good even after bowman left and some of the legends like yzer and shanny retired.
and team canada had a golden generation in the 2010s, again, hard to lose when you have a stacked team.
I think him using his power to fuck with people hurt the franchise.
What a jackoff, none of this stuff made the team better or got the best out of anyone.
I feel bad for Corrado. Local guy that loved the Leafs playing for his hometown team. I know he was never a top end guy or anything but the Leafs had a very young team at the time with a very weak D core (funny enough we still have the same issue) but anyways Babcock just singled him out for no reason and destroyed his confidence.
Let’s also not forget the hypocricy and duplicity where this man pretended to give half a shit about “mental health” while all of this was going down.
https://www.nhl.com/mapleleafs/news/babcock-leafs-focus-on-mental-health-awareness-286067874
What a fucking dickhead.
It really says something when the players have to call you out on treating rookies so poorly. Being in a leadership position of any kind should teach you to be aware of how your actions impact others. Babcock sounds like he really thinks he’s just better than everyone else.
Babcock is a fucking loser. Shit coach and shit human being who got handed super teams that my mother could’ve coached to victory. He didn’t lead his teams to a cup or a medal, his teams led him to a cup or a medal.
Babs is one of those people who should’ve been made to pick up trash or work a drive thru window for their whole life because any bit of power given to them is abused. He was a control freak who clearly loved playing psychological games with anyone around him, upsetting people and creating stressful situations simply because he could.
I hope he never sets foot near the game of hockey at any level ever again. The prick already made his millions, let him rot with it somewhere…
Hey Mike
https://preview.redd.it/alowfm6s8s3d1.png?width=695&format=png&auto=webp&s=6024024320cfc72598a80847884b2d3a85aaa027
>Babcock would quietly instruct him to go first in drills, so he’d have to push past star players in line…
Well at least he didn’t have to go around to many people.
And people wonder why the Leafs didn’t want to play under him anymore.
People say that the Leafs are soft, that they need a hardass coach to keep them in line. But Babcock wasn’t a hardass. He was just an asshole on a power trip that broke the confidence of his players. He’s why they needed Sheldon Keefe, to build the team back up after they were torn down by Babcock.
How does Shanahan get away with being really bad at his job for so long? The Babcock contract should have gotten him fired on its own.
Also you ask any of the detroit players about him he’s also a huge prick too
Benched Modano on his potentially 1000th game, when the game didn’t really matter
Gave Franzen mental health issues
Bench Chelios even after 2 defenceman were injured
and of course the Mike Commodore situation
Hearing the Peter Holland story was interesting. I remember after he went to Arizona and scored the winner against the leafs. Dangle lost his mind (I’m pretty sure the video is one of his most popular regular season videos). Even as a leafs fan though I’m now glad to say he at least got that as some poetic justice to dealing with Babs. Maybe the leafs have such bad mojo because some of the people we’ve given the most money to over the years were assholes.