Off He Goes....

[WingNut722]

Reports are beginning to circulate that Mike Babcock has signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs for 8 years at 50 Million Dollars.  That's $6.25 Million Per Season.  The best Detroit could offer was 5 years at $20 Million Dollars...

 

What's up, Jeff?

[murraycraven]

that is just stupid money and terms...

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Well, sucks for Det fans they lost one of the keener minds in hockey coaching, but I keep hearing the AHL coach Jeff Blashill may be promoted to the NHL to run things behind the bench for the Wings.

 

If so, Det fans may not have reason to mourn the loss of Mike Babcock for very long.

 

Seems to me, that it's a growing trend (and a somewhat successful one too) where NHL teams are moving in "new blood" into their coaching ranks...and they seemingly are doing it from within using coaches who have been successful at lower level of coaching (and in some cases VERY familiar with the young talent the NHL club is trying to work into the lineups) and giving them their shots.

 

Right off the bat, the two teams I follow, the Wild and Lightning come to mind:

 

Mike Yeo---very familiar with the young Minnesota players from their time with him in the Houston Aeros.

Jon Cooper-- very familiar, successful coach with the Bolts AHL affiliates Norfolk and Syracuse...and he also saw success coaching at the high school level and in the USHL.

 

Willie Desjardins in Vancouver, Patrick Roy in Colorado, Bill Peters in Carolina, and most recently, Dave Hakstol in Philly.

All relatively new coaches in the NHL, with varying degrees of success so far (but all seem to have things looking upwards) and all have had moderate to great success before reaching the NHL level.

 

Obviously, Jeff Blashill has done a great job with the Grand Rapids team...and lo and behold, the Red Wings have many former Griffins players on the team, and are looking to move up some more to the roster.

I'd say that gives Blashill (if he is indeed made coach) and the Wings a head start on getting the club back to Stanley Cup readiness over some of the other 'new' coaches in the NHL.

[Capsized]

Welcome to Dave Lewis 2.0. 

[TheHockeytown]

The Wings' fanbase will just have to thank him for 10 years and move on. For players that have been in Detroit since Babs started his tenure, after hearing from the same voice for that long, it might be time for a change. Detroit needs a coach with a new voice, one that can motivate and energize the boys enough to push a deep playoff run.

 

Looking forward to next season, going to be great!

[Capsized]

The Wings' fanbase will just have to thank him for 10 years and move on. For players that have been in Detroit since Babs started his tenure, after hearing from the same voice for that long, it might be time for a change. Detroit needs a coach with a new voice, one that can motivate and energize the boys enough to push a deep playoff run.

 

Looking forward to next season, going to be great!

That's 4 players. I think they are far more likely to miss the playoffs under Blash than make a run. I hope the experiment works out but I have serious doubts. I predict Toronto will be contenders before Detroit. 

[yave1964]

@WingNut722@TheHockeytown@Capsized@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Relax, we will be fine.

 

I have been saying Babs was gone to Toronto and sticking to my guns since Carlyle was fired with the team in playoff contention, if they had snuck into the playoffs and won a round no way could they have fired Carlyle. The firing was the first shot in the battle to land Babs and to the Leafs credit they went out and spent ungodly stupid money and got their man. I posted elsewhere if the Leafs win a cup under Babs his face will be on the money.

 

  But like everything else the Wings do, we are prepared. We hired Tony Granato to be a bench coach and run the special teams, something he does extraordinarily well. And Blashill, last year they paid him NHL coach money to keep him from listening to offers, Holland KNEW Babs would be looking. Right now the Junior Wings, AKA my Grand Rapids Griffins are killing it in the playoffs, in the conference finals. In fact, in three years since taking over the Griffins Blashill has a postseason record of 7-1 in playoff series.

Players who have played for him who are now Wings:

Tatar

Gus

Mrazek

Ferraro

Glendening

Jurco

Sheahan

 

PLUS

Pulkinen

Mantha

Oullet

Marchenko

Sproul

Bertuzzi

Athanasiou

 

And more who will be with the big club this year and next. The Wings used their usual vision to see this coming, handled it with grace and class and are ready to move on.

 I love Babs, I really do but the team has stagnated, new blood behind the bench who knows most of the roster is just what the Doctor ordered.

[Capsized]

@WingNut722@TheHockeytown@Capsized@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Relax, we will be fine.

 

I have been saying Babs was gone to Toronto and sticking to my guns since Carlyle was fired with the team in playoff contention, if they had snuck into the playoffs and won a round no way could they have fired Carlyle. The firing was the first shot in the battle to land Babs and to the Leafs credit they went out and spent ungodly stupid money and got their man. I posted elsewhere if the Leafs win a cup under Babs his face will be on the money.

 

  But like everything else the Wings do, we are prepared. We hired Tony Granato to be a bench coach and run the special teams, something he does extraordinarily well. And Blashill, last year they paid him NHL coach money to keep him from listening to offers, Holland KNEW Babs would be looking. Right now the Junior Wings, AKA my Grand Rapids Griffins are killing it in the playoffs, in the conference finals. In fact, in three years since taking over the Griffins Blashill has a postseason record of 7-1 in playoff series.

Players who have played for him who are now Wings:

Tatar

Gus

Mrazek

Ferraro

Glendening

Jurco

Sheahan

 

PLUS

Pulkinen

Mantha

Oullet

Marchenko

Sproul

Bertuzzi

Athanasiou

 

And more who will be with the big club this year and next. The Wings used their usual vision to see this coming, handled it with grace and class and are ready to move on.

 I love Babs, I really do but the team has stagnated, new blood behind the bench who knows most of the roster is just what the Doctor ordered.

 

I don't see the new blood argument. Blash has coached most of the likely roster players longer than Babcock. It shouldn't be overlooked that Blash has simply been tasked with executing Babcock's system. Blashill is just a piece of the machine that Babcock built. Blashill is unlikely to keep Babcock's staff. New head coaches almost never do.  He will begin the process of building an entirely new staff both in GR and Detroit. It will take years for this process to work itself out. The franchise has been gutted with the departure of Nill and co. last year and now Babcock and co. this year. It will take years to recover no matter how good Blashill is.

[WingNut722]

@WingNut722@TheHockeytown@Capsized@TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Relax, we will be fine.

 

 

 

Not worried at all...  But now we go back to our original argument lo these many months ago.  WHY did he decide to go with Toronto (or even just leave Detroit in the first place)?  The Leafs are a mess right now.  Does Babs really want this as a pet project?  Sticking with Detroit certainly offers him better odds of getting his name scratched into the Cup one more time.  Or is it just the oodles of money they're giving him (do you know how many zeroes there are in "oodles"???) to put the Leafs on a fast-track through the rebuilding years?

[TropicalFruitGirl26]

Not worried at all...  But now we go back to our original argument lo these many months ago.  WHY did he decide to go with Toronto (or even just leave Detroit in the first place)?  The Leafs are a mess right now.  Does Babs really want this as a pet project?  Sticking with Detroit certainly offers him better odds of getting his name scratched into the Cup one more time.  Or is it just the oodles of money they're giving him (do you know how many zeroes there are in "oodles"???) to put the Leafs on a fast-track through the rebuilding years?

 

Could be he wants to make the ultimate stamp on his coaching career by bringing back relevance not only to one of the most visible teams in the NHL, but to his home province team of Toronto, ONT.

 

I mean, he already is regarded as one of the better coaches in the league, but if he could do something with the mess that is Toronto, he will be probably be placed on all time elite coach status.

 

He will attempt to do what many have tried and failed miserably over the course of the last 25+ years or so....brave man he is.... 

 

Oh, and the money for doing it ain't too shabby either...

[yave1964]

Not worried at all...  But now we go back to our original argument lo these many months ago.  WHY did he decide to go with Toronto (or even just leave Detroit in the first place)?  The Leafs are a mess right now.  Does Babs really want this as a pet project?  Sticking with Detroit certainly offers him better odds of getting his name scratched into the Cup one more time.  Or is it just the oodles of money they're giving him (do you know how many zeroes there are in "oodles"???) to put the Leafs on a fast-track through the rebuilding years?

Money. Scratch. Cash. Moolah. 50 million dollars instead of 20 million dollars. Lots and lots of reasons, 30 million of them.

 

 And I tell you Babcock has his eye on history. Nearly fifty years since the Leafs have won a cup frustration after frustration, if he wins a cup in Toronto he is a God. Prime Minister Babcock has a nice ring. Maybe his Lordly high ruler. They may come up with a new title just for him. There may be a Babcock tax, ten cents on every dollar earned by every citizen who lives in Ontario goes directly to him.

So money and his place in history. If he bombs like so many before have, well, fifty million dollars helps to ease a lot of suffering.

[WingNut722]

@yave1964   @TropicalFruitGirl26

 

Money's money and that's a lot of money, but if there's one thing Babcock hates, it's losing.  He's got eight years now to make "winners" out of the Toronto Maple Leafs, and in the eyes of the hockey world and the citizens of Ontario, nothing short of at least one Stanley Cup within eight years (no extensions) will be considered a success in any way shape or form, given the attention this whole sweepstakes has garnered.  And he's going to have a tough time winning that Cup in those eight years.  I have no idea what the Leafs farm system looks like (I leave that to Swami), but by the time eight years roll around, Phanuef, Kessell, Kadri, all the current guys who show any kind of talent are gonna be gone, or at least in the very twilight of their careers (if they stick around).  Which means growing a new team or blowing coin on huge free agents.  And what from what's been whispered, Babcock is not an easy man to play for.  You didn't see a whole lot of Grade A players flocking to Detroit in the last 5 years, did ya?

 

Yes, if he wins, he'll have his picture on the Canadian currency and a bridge named after him.  If he doesn't though, it'll be just one more failed attempt.  Normally that would just fade into anonymity, but at 50 million dollars, it'll be a lasting black mark for the whole organization.  The two gold medals in the Olympics will be ancient history by then, and won't be able to resurrect him from potentially being shamed.  The only way this will work is if it works.  That is a ton of pressure for a guy who quite honestly just doesn't have anything else to prove.  

 

I understand Buffalo offered him 10 years at 50 Million.  That's 5 million a year, average.  You're gonna tell me that the additional $1.25MM is worth all that extra baggage?

[Capsized]

I predict the Wings will miss the playoffs before Toronto does. Every coach in the league has success prior to coming to the men's league. Blashill may be a good coach but he isn't the best coach. It has taken the best coach to get the Wings in the tourney the last few years. 

 

I also predict the Leafs will win a cup before the Wings do.

 

Blashill's career as head coach will last 3 years before he is fired and we begin the eternal search for a guy capable of coaching a team to the cup. 

 

The glowing remarks from players about Blashill tells you all you need to know. He is a player's coach and player's coaches don't win the cup.

[Holymakinaw]

I understand Buffalo offered him 10 years at 50 Million.  That's 5 million a year, average.  You're gonna tell me that the additional $1.25MM is worth all that extra baggage?

 

Hmmm..........Lemme see.  I could go with my family live in the clean, beautiful, world-class city that is Toronto, get paid 50 million bucks for 8 year's worth of work, and try to bring a fabled original six franchise back to glory.

 

Or I could move to Buffalo for that money, but for a full decade.

 

Tough choice!!!

[AJgoal]

Well, to be fair, at the end of 10 years he could probably afford to buy Buffalo. All of it.

[Holymakinaw]

Well, to be fair, at the end of 10 years he could probably afford to buy Buffalo. All of it.

 

Have you ever been to Buffalo?  I have.  

 

Would you really WANT to buy any of it?

[AJgoal]

I used to spend a week up there around twice a year. Still have family in the area. Buy Buffalo and turn it into something akin to the rest of the surrounding area and it wouldn't be too terrible.

[WingNut722]

Have you ever been to Buffalo?  I have.  

 

Would you really WANT to buy any of it?

Buying a cold, dead lifeless city and bringing it back to life?  Yeah, no parallels between the Maple Leafs there!  

[SpikeDDS]

My thoughts (finally getting to this):

1. @yave1964 was right all along.

2. $6.25M per year for 8 years is INSANE money. I wouldn't have been surprised to see $5.X M/yr, but $6.25?! That's just crazy money.

3. Mike Babcock likes winning. $6.25M/yr is officially winning. As he often says: Good for him!

4. I think the Leafs needed to do something like this just so their fans know they are serious about the team. Everyone knows that Mike Ilitch will do what is necessary to buy a championship. Any questions, see 2002. Since you can't buy teams any more, Toronto had to show SOMETHING. This is their something.

5. Jeff Blashill is not Dave Lewis. Dave Lewis didn't have Blashill's successful track record in the lower leagues. 7-1 in AHL postseason series is remarkable.

But let's be fair an honest--the talent the Griffins have as compared with the rest of the AHL is pretty high. The talent the Wings have as compared to the rest of the NHL is not that high. It's OK, but not exceptional. Blashill has proven he can win with the best team. It is an entirely different matter to coach an above-average team to the top. Can he do that? Dunno. Time will tell. It will be interesting to see how he handles the pressure when (not if) the Wings hit a cold spurt like we did in March.

6. Jeff Blashill is not Scotty Bowman, nor is he Mike Babcock. Then again, as good as Babs is, he only won 1 Cup while he was here.

7. We will be fine, and we are fine because our assemblage of talent will eventually allow us to make that one (maybe two) big trade or FA acquisition that will likely be needed to put us right back near the top to contend.

8. I think there is credence to the argument that it was time for a new voice--that to some degree his message has been become a little less potent over the last few years. Not because it was a bad message, but because there may have been a bit of Bab-weariness. Same thing happened to Bob Hartley, of whom Scotty Bowman once said was the best coach he ever coached against. Keep driving the same message long enough, and people eventually stop listening or accepting the message like they once did.

9. The money and patriotism are why Bab's left. These are two very strong pulls. I am absolutely OK with him leaving. Those are 50,000,001 good reasons to go. It was time. Would I have preferred he stay? Sure. But not for $6.5M per year. I couldn't afford that. ;-)

10. Predictions: Wings make the playoffs next season. Toronto goes to the conference final in 4 years.

[jammer2]

I also predict the Leafs will win a cup before the Wings do.

 

 That is an outrageous claim....one that has no factual support. Can you give some solid reasons for that statement?  Wings prospects are significantly better, as are their young players who are currently on the NHL roster....give me 7 Dekeysers and you win the cup...give me 7 Morgan Riley's and you don't make the playoffs...and it really is as simple as that.

[yave1964]

@SpikeDDS

 

Glad to see your input.

 

Blashill does not have to be Babcock, he simply has to be himself. Agreed he is not Dave Lewis. I watch a ton of Griffin games, they look like the Wings, the system is strong and he has them buying in.

  Usually the AHL team that wins the Calder Cup is composed of a bunch of guys who are former NHLers or career minor leaguers, usually it is not a team composed of kids. Don't get me wrong the Griff's have a few old goats, Paetsch had a few minutes with the Sabres, Jeff Hoggan bounced around a bit, Brennan Evans was a camp invite with three or four teams and nearly made it, they do provide veteran leadership but very, very few AHL teams have as many NHL ready or near ready players for all situations. Pulkinnen, Mantha and Asanasiou for top six roles. Ferraro for a grit line. Three ready d-men who all can play different roles. Amazing scouting department and credit due to Jim Nill. Now Dylan Larkin will be making his AHL debut this weekend and Axel Holmstrom looks like another Swede late round steal (Sound familiar?) .

 Got off subject, my point being usually the teams with top kid talent do not win, they are cannon fodder for the grizzled AHL vets but with Tatar and Nyquist and company he won a cup and they are shredding the AHL with Pulkinnen and company this year leading the way. No reason that Blashill cannot do the same in the NHL.

 

  I absolutely could not agree more with what you posted, sure I would have loved to see Babs back, but we have turned a page and I wish him well in Toronto. Time to move forward with the top young coach in the AHL getting his chance. As usual, whatever the contingency the Wings are prepared. My one hope is that they retain Tony Granato as a bench coach to mentor Blashill a bit at the NHL level and to continue to run the special teams which he did so well last year.

[Capsized]

 That is an outrageous claim....one that has no factual support. Can you give some solid reasons for that statement?  Wings prospects are significantly better, as are their young players who are currently on the NHL roster....give me 7 Dekeysers and you win the cup...give me 7 Morgan Riley's and you don't make the playoffs...and it really is as simple as that.

IMO Babcock teams overachieve.He gets them to play with structure. I would say without Babcock the Wings would have missed the playoffs at least once in the last 3 years. Probably more. IMO Babcock is the best coach in the NHL by a wide margin. I have zero confidence that Blashill is going to be the new best coach in the NHL. This league is a parity league. Coaching is the only place you can use money to get a decided advantage. Blashill has been executing Babcock's system well but that is very different than creating the system. The overwhelming majority of coaching candidates fail at the NHL level. The average career is very short and only a handful of coaches are capable of winning a cup. Blashill is merely a prospect. Sure, he has had success everywhere but so has every failed coach in NHL history. I seriously doubt we make the playoffs this year and I wouldn't be surprised if Blashill's career is 3 years long. I hope I am wrong.

[hf101]

Babcock posted a full page ad saying good - bye

 

[WingNut722]

@yave1964 @Capsized @SpikeDDS-

 

Babs is not a god (yet) and to think that he'll magically right the Maple Leafs ship single-handedly is a little meshuga.  Players win championships.  The coach is an integral part and a good coach will improve the players mentally and make them hungrier, but its the players that ultimately need to get it done.

 

In this instance, I can see Mike Babcock making the greatest impact with a team who is consistently good and just needs that extra piece to get them over the hump.  The Rangers or Habs or even the Capitals are good examples.  They have all the pieces on the ice, but they just need to be sewn together in just the right fashion.  I just don't see that happening in Toronto (anytime soon anyway, specifically with Spike's prediction of conference finals in 4 years - that's a bit aggressive).  

 

I'll give you a playoff berth in four years but admittedly, Brendan Shanahan has a LOT more work to do to make that little dream come true.

[WingNut722]

@hf101

 

I saw that ad.  It's a very nice gesture from a very humble guy!