NHL Rumors: Blue Jackets Intend to Hire Former Maple Leafs Coach Mike Babcock as HC

The Columbus Blue Jackets intend to hire Mike Babcock as their next head coach once his contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs expires next month, per Sportsnet.

TSN's Darren Dreger and Pierre LeBrun added more information:

Aaron Portzline of The Athletic also confirmed the news via an anonymous team source, noting Columbus' intention to hire Babcock after the Leafs contract runs out on June 30.

Clay Hall, the Sports Director of ABC-6 and FOX-28, reached out to Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen for comment:

The 60-year-old Babcock has coached the Anaheim Ducks (2002-2004), Detroit Red Wings (2005-2015) and Maple Leafs (2015-2020). His teams have compiled a record of 700 wins, 418 regulation losses, 19 ties and 164 overtime defeats.

Babcock notably led the Red Wings to back-to-back Stanley Cup appearances in 2008 and 2009, with the team winning it all in the former year. He also guided the 2002-03 Ducks to a Stanley Cup appearance.

In addition, Babcock led the Canadian men's national hockey team to a pair of Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014.

The Blue Jackets have missed the playoffs each of the past three years.

There's no doubting Babcock's tremendous success at the professional and international levels.

However, some former players notably accused the coach of verbal and mental abuse after Toronto fired him in 2019.

Ex-Red Wing forward Johan Franzen told Swedish evening newspaper Expressenthat Babcock "the worst (person) I have ever met."

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

Franzen retired in 2015 after 11 years in Detroit. Per Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News, Franzen has suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and depression. He also suffered numerous concussions during his career.

Hall of Famer, former Red Wings defenseman and ex-Detroit front office executive Chris Chelios also had this to say on the Spittin' Chiclets podcast (h/t Ted Kulfan of The Detroit News) in 2019 regarding a moment he saw between the coach and player during the 2012 playoffs against the Nashville Predators.

"Some of the things he (Babcock) said to him (Franzen) on the bench, I don't know what he said to him behind closed doors one-on-one, but he blatantly verbally assaulted him during the game on the bench. It got to the point where poor Johan, no one really knowing he was suffering with the concussion thing and the depression thing, he just broke down and had nervous breakdown, not only on the bench but after the game in one of the rooms in Nashville.

"It was probably one of the worst things I've ever seen."

There was also a reported incident involving then-Maple Leafs rookie Mitch Marner per Terry Koshan of the Toronto Sun and confirmed by hockey analyst Ian Tulloch.

Babcock responded to the allegations in an interview with LeBrun in Jan. 2021.

"It doesn't matter what I perceive," Babcock said in part.

"When you're talking about this kind of thing, if the person — whether it's a co-worker, your spouse, your student — if they think that's the environment, that's what they're feeling. Now, I sure wish I would have known about that then. And I could have done something about that. Besides apologize, there's not much I can do about that now. But does it sting? Does it hurt? Absolutely."

Regarding the Marner incident, Babcock said the moment was misconstrued.

"Yeah, that's not how that happened, actually,'' Babcock said in part.

"So Mitch was in my office. We were talking about work ethic. I asked him where he ranked on the scale. And that was no problem, that was just a private thing. It was a good meeting, Mitch left. But then I was meeting, I'm pretty sure it was with (Tyler) Bozak, afterward. Bozy was an important part of our team. What I ended up doing — and I made a big-time mistake, I knew as soon as I did it — when we were talking about competing and I said, 'Well look where Mitch ranks it.'

"So Mitch was in my office. We were talking about work ethic. I asked him where he ranked on the scale. And that was no problem, that was just a private thing. It was a good meeting, Mitch left. But then I was meeting, I'm pretty sure it was with (Tyler) Bozak, afterward. Bozy was an important part of our team. What I ended up doing — and I made a big-time mistake, I knew as soon as I did it — when we were talking about competing and I said, 'Well look where Mitch ranks it.'

Columbus just finished the season with 25 wins, 48 regulation losses and nine overtime defeats alongside a minus-116 goal differential. The Blue Jackets have missed the playoffs each of the past three years.