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Why is Mike Babcock back in the NHL?

The Columbus Blue Jackets are set to hire Mike Babcock as the team's new head coach, four years after he was fired as bench boss in Toronto. In light of reports about Babcock's treatment of players during his coaching career, many are asking why he's back in an NHL hot seat.

Video Transcript

- I genuinely did not think Babcock was on anyone's, like, legitimate radar. It always comes up as a joke, but man, thoughts and prayers Johnny Gaudreau. That sucks. You watch from Tortorella--

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Hey, hold on. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. My colleague at The Athletic, Hailey Salvian, made this point and I'm going to echo the sentiment too. Everyone thought that Johnny Gaudreau was going to suffer under Darryl Sutter, who was a noted hardass. And he only went on to have his best season as a pro under him. Does that mean he liked playing for Darryl Sutter? That's not necessarily clear.

I understand his dad is also kind of similar to Darryl Sutter. Like, he coached him when he was a lot younger and stuff. Does he like playing for those types of people? I'm not sure. That being said, it's entirely possible, like, it could work offensively. But also--

- Yeah. I'm just-- I guess I'm just confused as to, like, why was Babcock the person? And is this Columbus-- is this Columbus saying, OK, we're tired of being bad. We're going to try to actually, like, take some steps. And if that's the case, what else are they going to do? Because if it's just we're going to hire Babcock and then see if he can rally the troops and get them to the playoffs, like, that that's not going to work. So yeah, I guess my main question is just why-- why Mike Babcock? That's-- if I could ask any question to Jarmo Kekalainen and say, why him? Why him, specifically?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: OK. I want to just respond to this. The only thing I can think of is they had Torts and it seemed like having somewhat of his ilk kind of brought something out of them. And it worked. But even then, like, here's my thing with this. I'm not surprised that Mike Babcock is back. I'm surprised Columbus is the team. I always thought that as long as Ken Holland has a job in the National Hockey League, God forbid something happens, Mike Babcock could end up somewhere. I deadass believed that.

They're boys. Like, I get it. You know, it ended in Detroit. They're boys. Like, it was going to happen. Like, for the longest while, I would say, like, OK, if it wasn't going to work at Edmundson, all you gotta do is hit up Mike Babcock would be like, aight, Coach Connor McDavid and them boys.

Like, I knew he was going to come back. You know what people love to do in the NHL? Pointing at a guy's resume and be like, well, he won here, he did all this stuff here. He found a way to make this work here. He should totally coach our team. You know, a guy who wasn't won a--

- What did he make work when?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: But Omar, he won a Stanley Cup with the Detroit Red Wings.

- In 2008.

SAM CHANG: That team could have played without a coach and they would have won a Stanley Cup.

- Right.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: I'm just-- but guys-- like, the recipe's there. Won gold medals with Team Canada.

- I could have coached Team Canada and they would have won. We all could have coached Team Canada.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Look, guys-- guys-- I

SAM CHANG: Think my biggest issue with the Babcock discourse is this propensity. Like, all the pushback I've seen for people saying he shouldn't be coaching in the league again has been people who are mad saying, yeah, he's a jerk. He's a he's a generational jerk. He's a generational asshole. What's the big deal? Like, he wins. I-- I think that's a very deliberate mischaracterization of what he did.

Like, he's not just, like, a coach who's tough on their players. Like, look, Darryl Sutter is tough on his players. I have-- and maybe the stories just haven't come out. I've never heard of anyone expressly saying, you know, Darryl Sutter is the worst human I've ever met. And I couldn't get out of bed. I was scared to go to the rink.

Like, this man ruined Johan Franzén's life, in Johan Franzén's own words. To say that he is a generational jerk is a massive understatement of what he did. And it's not just-- like, Chelios came out and said he gave him a nervous breakdown on the bench and in the hotel room in Nashville after in that year.

And then you have Mark Fraser coming out. I'm like, think about how-- think about how bad of a person you have to be for players to expressly say this about you on the record with their names behind it. This is a league where none of this stuff comes out. And Mark Fraser came out and said 95% of the players who have ever played for him don't have a single good thing to say about him. Do you know what it takes for a player in this league, especially a player of color, to come out and say that?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: And--

SAM CHANG: Like, come on.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: And I want that-- I want that-- like, thank you for saying that. Because we're not stupid. Players talk to each other. They talk to each other about cities to play in. They talk to each other about coaches to play for you. Mean to tell me with all of these stories out there and all these quotes out there with Mike Babcock, there are at least a few people in Columbus who are looking at each other being like, are we sure this is the guy we want in our locker room?

There's no way. Like, that that's what boggles my mind about this. And while I'm not surprised because people, again, will point out a resume and say, this is the guy to do it. I get Johnny Gaudreau. Patrik Laine, how is he feeling about this? Like, come on.

- What's his contract-- what's his contract like?

ARUN SRINIVASAN: Hold on.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: How were there not guys in Columbus-- I can understand they might not say anything on record, but how are there not guys in Columbus right now who are looking at this and they're like, uh, is this the right idea? I get that he won, but like, I don't know.