The consensus in Toronto seems to be that if Mike Babcock doesn’t sign a contract extension with the Detroit Red Wings, the club he has led for the last decade, than the man with the .581 career winning percentage, two Olympic gold medals and a Stanley Cup ring would be the man to lead the Maple Leafs back to glory.
Because that’s how it works – all you need is the right coach, nothing else. Sigh.
This is how it is in Toronto, a city starving for its hockey team to be competitive, yet alone contenders. The mindset is that the team can open up its enormous bank account, throw a bunch of money at a guy that has guided Detroit to no fewer than 39 wins in any full-length regular season and the playoffs every year that he’s been there and the team will turn itself around. Newsflash delusional Leafs fans: even if you do managed to wrangle Babcock in to navigate the ship, there are still a couple years of rough waters ahead.
Did you not check out the How Did We Get Here? series from earlier in the month? This team needs far more than a really good coach handing out assignments and retooling the penalty kill. Those things would obviously help, but the problems that plague this franchise extend well beyond the bench.
Everyone agrees that Babcock is a phenomenal coach and his ability to get the most out of the guys he has to work with has been critical in Detroit’s continued presence in the playoffs following the departure of long-time captain Niklas Lidstrom and stars Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk frequently missing time due to injuries. He’s one of the most decorated bench bosses in the game today and that carries a ton of weight with players, the same way Brendan Shanahan’s on-ice resume benefits the team now that he has the final word on all decisions.
But banking on Babcock leaving Detroit and embarking on what is at least a three-year rebuild in Toronto is a mistake – not because it isn’t going to happen, but because this franchise has already started taking steps towards getting this thing going in the right direction and being bummed out if the 51-year-old coach doesn’t come onboard in the offseason would be mistake.
Hard as it may be to recognize, things are slowly starting to get better.
The on-ice product is pretty bad, but that should translate into a Top 5 pick in the upcoming NHL Entry Draft, where the first four players likely to be chosen all appear to have All-Star potential. Toronto being awful over its last (counts on fingers) 40-something games has given them a slim chance at winning the Connor McDavid Sweepstakes, which could be the spark of hope that keeps fans from swearing off the team for the next couple years as they work through the rebuilding process.
2012 first-round pick Morgan Rielly continues to log valuable minutes and position himself to be the club’s top defensemen for years to come and last year’s No. 1 pick, William Nylander, was brought over the AHL after netting 20 points in 21 games with MODO of the Swedish Elite League before finishing second in scoring at the World Juniors.
Those two and whomever the Leafs pick this summer will be the core of the rebuilding effort. Goaltender Jonathan Bernier should be a part of that group too, even if the 26-year-old has struggled this season. Be patient – goalies are fickle and are often late bloomers.
More than anything, the fact that this team has started to move away from the “old school hockey guys” mentality that dominated the organization for so many years is the biggest positive fans should focus on.
Gone are the days of Brian Burke hiring his guys he’s worked with before to coach the team and stocking the management ranks with familiar faces. Sure, Shanahan is an NHL Hall of Famer, but everything he’s done thus far points to him being a guy that understands the shifting landscape of the NHL and the need to change the way players are evaluated and teams are built, which is why people like Kyle Dubas and Mark Hunter feature prominently in the future plans.
Getting Babcock would be a major plus, just please don’t go banking on him being the final piece to completing this puzzle. Babcock or not, the Leafs are slowly starting to figure it out and are headed in the right direction, even if it doesn’t look that way on the ice.
