The Toronto Maple Leafs introduced new head coach Mike Babcock to the public Thursday in a press conference that was long on hoopla and perhaps shorter on buzz words than you’d expect. Never before has a head coaching hire made as many waves in the NHL, and perhaps never before with a head coaching job be as scrutinized as Babcock in Toronto.
In the introductory press conference, the tone was set pretty early on. While it had all of the usual smiles and pats on the back as these things often do, Babcock revealed a lot about what he expects from the organization and where they’re at currently.
Here’s five takeaways from what was said by Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan and new head coach Mike Babcock.
1. Mike Babcock’s arrival will not change rebuilding timeline and vision of the current front office
One of the biggest concerns for Toronto’s candidacy as a potential landing spot for Babcock was that Shanahan has said that the team is entering a rebuilding process. Due to Babcock’s perceived impatience for losing as much as a rebuilding team has to, it seemed like Toronto was out and even was reported to be out of the running.
As we know now, that wasn’t the case. So now that Babcock is in Toronto, does that change the attitude of the front office? Not one bit, apparently. And Babcock is on board.
“I love to win,” Babcock said during his press conference. “I have a burning desire to win. I also want to win in the end. I don't want to just get in the playoffs. We want to build a team off the ice and on the ice that the fans of the Toronto Maple Leafs can be proud of.
“We have to create an environment that is safe for the players. Right now it's a hard spot. We're going to change that, but it's going to take time.”
Babcock has no illusions of the difficulty this organization faces, either.
“If you don't think there's pain coming, there's pain coming,” he said.
Shanahan noted that the rebuilding process was always part of the pitch to bring Babcock in and he wondered if his honesty about where the Leafs were at would drive Babcock elsewhere.
“Mike asked hard questions and I didn't lie,” Shanahan said. “I got off the phone and wondered if I made a huge mistake. From the beginning I outlined my vision. We met again in Prague [at the World Championships] and I reiterated that nothing changed, what our vision was here, what anyone that was coming in here would expect or needs to expect.”
It was actually Babcock’s further line of questioning that caught Shanahan off guard in the best possible way.
“Mike's questions for me weren't pushing against the build,” said the Hall of Famer. “It was, ‘Do we have the ability as an organization and as a city to stick to it through the hard times?’ We're not speeding up the process. We're going to stick to the process. We want Mike to be a coach and a builder.”
2. Babcock made no Stanley Cup promises, but spoke of a “Cup process”
Usually these press conferences are all about what it is going to take to make a team a Stanley Cup winner. After all, Maple Leafs haven’t won one since 1967, so fans want to hear about when that next one is coming, or if it's coming at all.
Babcock barely mentioned the Stanley Cup, but when he did, it was in a way that fans should find incredibly refreshing.
“I didn’t come here to win the Stanley Cup,” Babcock said. “I came here to be part of a Cup process.”
That’s a very important distinction. This is a team that may offload some of its current players and will be focusing on building through the draft and finding the right players to be part of this process. It could take years before Toronto even comes close to sniffing the Stanley Cup despite the addition of the new head coach. Perhaps that is part of the challenge, on top of the massive contract, that swayed Babcock on this.
However, the head coach did give a little more insight into what probably played a big role in his decision.
“I've had the opportunity to coach Team Canada,” he said. “I believe this is Canada's team and we've got to put Canada's team back on the map.”
That sustained groan you just heard is coming from Montreal. But the Maple Leafs are the richest team in the league, have the biggest following and the one that gets the most scrutiny.
The opportunity to be the franchise savior, though he never outright said it, had to be a massive factor in Babcock’s thought process. He knows he’s got an opportunity to do something in the “Center of the Hockey Universe.”
3. The Maple Leafs claim the financial offer Babcock agreed to was the first they offered him
Babcock’s deal is reported as an eight-year contract worth around $50 million. No coach is in his stratosphere when it comes to that number. The really interesting thing about that is that Shanahan said it was the financial commitment they laid on the table in the first meeting.
For Babcock, the contract was more than just a financial commitment.
“To me, it's real simple,” said the head coach when asked about his new deal. “The contract is simply a commitment from the Maple Leafs to success. They've made a long-term commitment to me, so I understand they're fully committed to the process.”
Babcock also doesn’t believe the life-changing monetary commitment will change much about him personally.
“Normally I can drive a Ford F-150 into work, and I still plan to,” he said with a smile.
4. Shanahan may not end up filling the general manager vacancy
While the Toronto Maple Leafs have built a large front office staff, they still have no one specifically tabbed as the general manager after firing Dave Nonis earlier this spring. That doesn’t mean that Babcock will be making the decisions. He said he has nothing in his contract that stipulates he will get input on the roster.
Shanahan, who expressed that he absolutely wants Babcock’s input on the roster even though it’s not in his contract, also noted that he may not hire a GM at all.
“I'm still interested in pursuing a general manager if one fits,” said the Maple Leafs president, with that last part being the most important. “I won't rule anything out at this point. It's about finding the right fit.
“I thought at the time it was more pressing to resolve the coaching situation. I've had some conversations with some potential people. My process and plan hasn't really changed since after the season. If we find the right guy, we'll move on the right guy.”
The Maple Leafs have three assistant general managers currently and Shanahan at the top. Adding Babcock into the mix makes for a lot of cooks in the decision-making kitchen. If Shanahan is the man in charge and wants to make the hockey ops decisions, he has no shortage of advisors. Shanahan also noted that the team is prepared to go into the draft without a GM as assistant GM Mark Hunter has already been putting the team’s draft plan together.
It’s going to be an interesting dynamic.
5. Babcock feels he was honest in his process despite reported outrage from Buffalo Sabres
The fallout after Babcock’s decision became public centered mostly around Buffalo. The Sabres reportedly believed that they had a deal done with Babcock before finding out at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday that the head coach decided to sign with the Maple Leafs.
The Sabres were reportedly “livid” and there was some suggestion that Babcock simply used the Sabres as leverage to get a better deal out of the Maple Leafs, his true desired destination. Some rumors even suggested Babcock lied to Sabres brass before signing his contract.
Babcock bristled at that notion.
“That lying word is an interesting word for me,” Babcock said as he shuffled in his seat while preparing to choose his words carefully. “I've been in the public eye for a long, long time. I don't think that goes anywhere near what I am or what I'm about. I've been a straight forward with all of the teams I met.”
Babcock also said that he did discuss term and money with the Sabres regarding a possible contract there.
During a press scrum after the overall press conference Babcock also made an interesting revelation:
Babcock says the Sabres offer was bigger. He wanted to coach the Leafs.
— James Mirtle (@mirtle) May 21, 2015
No wonder they're upset in Buffalo.
Shanahan also had some thoughts on the topic.
“The teams that got pushed out early on don't get their feelings hurt the most,” Shanahan said. “We'd probably be upset as well [if the roles were reversed.]”
In an interview with Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman, Shanahan also said that the Maple Leafs made no last-ditch pitch to Babcock. He said that neither the offer, nor the approach of the team changed from the first meeting on.
“There was no last minute swing for the fences,” he told Friedman.
He also said that while reports on the outside had suggested the Maple Leafs were out of it, the club never felt like they were out of the running to land their current head coach.
The Toronto Maple Leafs got their man, but it seems that the work for the organization is only just beginning. The process could be long, hard and as Babcock says, painful. However, it's hard to come out of that press conference with anything but optimistic feelings for where the Maple Leafs organization is headed.
There is a process and there appears to be a vision. Now they have the head coach on board that might just be the man to help successfully execute that vision. Only time will tell, but there's little doubt that the last 24 hours have been franchise-altering for Toronto.
