Mike Babcock Is Expected To Become The Next Blue Jackets Head Coach, Per a Report

The Blue Jackets will announce Mike Babcock as the team's ninth full-time head coach, according to a report from TSN's Darren Dreger.

Speculation around the Memorial Cup is Mike Babcock will return to the NHL as @BlueJacketsNHL new coach and the delay in announcing coincides with his existing contract with the Maple Leafs expiring the end of this month. https://t.co/OUlxBRS8bq

— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 3, 2023

Dreger's report was confirmed by Sportsnet, while Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic said, "Sounds like Babcock has been Jarmo Kekalainen's choice for a bit."

Babcock, a 60-year-old Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, native, has 17 years of NHL head-coaching experience with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Detroit Red Wings, and Toronto Maple Leafs, compiling a regular-season record of 700-418-19-164 (.602 PTS%) in 1301 games. In 14 playoff appearances, he’s posted a record of 90-74 (.549 PTS%), including a Stanley Cup title in 2008 and two other trips to the Stanley Cup Final in 2003 with Anaheim and 2009 with Detroit. His 700 regular-season wins and 90 playoff wins rank 12th and eighth all-time among NHL coaches, respectively.

Babcock has been out of the league since 2019 when he was fired by the Maple Leafs 23 games into his fifth season with the team. During his tenure with Toronto, the Leafs went 173-133-51 (.557 PTS%), and made the playoffs three times but failed to win a round. 

However, his time in Toronto didn't come without controversy. Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun reported that "Babcock was alleged to have asked one of the Leafs’ rookies to list the players on the team from hardest-working to those who, in the eyes of the rookie, didn’t have a strong work ethic. The rookie did so, not wanting to upset his coach, but was taken aback when Babcock told the players who had been listed at the bottom."

"One tale was related to us in the past few days that is said to have occurred in the 2016-17 season, during the annual fathers trip.

Babcock was alleged to have asked one of the Leafs’ rookies to list the players on the team from hardest-working to those who, in the eyes of the rookie, didn’t have a strong work ethic. The rookie did so, not wanting to upset his coach, but was taken aback when Babcock told the players who had been listed at the bottom.

When Babcock scratched veteran Jason Spezza for the regular-season opener, a decision that was unnecessary and disrespectful, we received an e-mail from a long-time NHL observer wondering why Babcock would deliberately embarrass Spezza."

Before his time in Toronto, Babcock coached the Red Wings for 10 seasons, posting a record 458-223-105 (.649 PTS%), making the playoffs every year, and advancing to the Stanley Cup Final in 2008 and 2009, winning the title in 2008.

Before the off-ice news in Toronto, there was some in Detroit, as well. Johan Franzen, who played for Babcock for 10 seasons with the Red Wings, called him “the worst person I have ever met" in an interview with Swedish newspaper Expressen.

"How would you describe Babcock as a coach and as a person?

– As a coach he is extremely meticulous and well prepared. He is very good at putting a team together and getting everyone to buy into it. That’s his strong side. 

– But then, he’s a terrible person, the worst I have ever met. He’s a bully who was attacking people. It could be a cleaner at the arena in Detroit or anybody. He would lay into people without any reason." 

Babcock’s first NHL head-coaching job came with the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, where he coached for two years from 2002-03 to 2003-04, going 69-62-19-14 (.521 PTS%), making the Stanley Cup Final in 2003 and missing the playoffs in 2004.

His first head-coaching job in pro hockey came with the AHL’s Cincinnati Mighty Ducks from 2000-01 to 2001-02, where he compiled a 74-59-20-7 (.547 PTS%) regular season record, losing in the first round in 2001 and the qualifying round in 2002. 

Babcock also coached the WHL’s Spokane Chiefs from 1994-95 to 1999-2000, going 228-173-29-2 (.564 PTS%). That was his second stint in the WHL, as he was the bench boss for the Moose Jaw Warriors from 1991-92 to 1992-93, going 60-74-6 (.438 PTS%). Between his two WHL stints, he was the head coach at the University of Lethbridge in 1993-94 where he went 34-11-3 (.740 PTS%).

Since being fired by Toronto, he served as a Senior Advisor at the University of Vermont in 2020-21 and went 13-7 as the University of Saskatchewan's head coach in 2021-22.

Babcock is the third full-time head coach and second outside hire by Kekalainen since he became the club’s general manager in 2013, after hiring John Tortorella in 2015 and Brad Larsen in 2021. 

After three-straight seasons without playoff hockey, pressure is on Kekalainen, Babcock, and company to get the Blue Jackets back to the postseason.