My point was not the guy suddenly becomes dumber if he went to the Leafs. Dude, seriously?? My point was, it would be an error in judgment if Babcock believes he is that special on his own that he alone can turn around a mess the magnitude of the Toronto Maple Leafs. He has a lot of things going for him in Detroit.
Most hockey experts say that coaching the Maple Leafs is a dream job for any coach. It's like someone being asked to coach either the Boston Red Sox or the NY Yankees. Toronto is the hockey universe of the world, and it's one of the top two historical franchises, the Montreal Canadiens being the other. I've also heard many pundits mention that should Mike Babcock (or any other coach) turn the Leafs into a contender, Babcock would be the toast of hockey-crazy Toronto and his popularity would become legendary, without even having to win the Stanley Cup. This is why Pat Burns & Pat Quinn are the two recent Leafs coaches who have nearly achieved this status. They had extremely successful years when they coached in Toronto.
Babcock may have a lot of good things happening for him in Detroit, but let's be honest: living in Toronto as compared to Detroit would be like living in the Playboy Mansion as compared to living on a houseboat.
But Mike Babcock has bolted successful franchises in the past (Anaheim) for greener pastures. By 'greener' pastures, i'm talking about money. He wants to be the league's highest-paid coach and no one can blame him for this. Consensus is that he's the best coach out there and if he believes this, why not be the highest-paid coach? He's also got nothing left to prove in Detroit and he may need a bigger challenge in order to maintain his motivation to coach. He may also be seeking a similar arrangement to Patrick Roy's, who has input in player personnnel & let's face it: Roy has such an arrangement with the Avs that he's basically un-fireable. He once told an acquaintance of mine (when he was with the Ramparts) that in a perfect world, coaches should be the ones hiring the GMs....that GMs should answer to the coaches, and not vice-versa. Many insiders believe that this is pretty much the arrangement he has with Colorado & the only reason why he chose to leave an extraordinary career (as coach, GM & owner) in Quebec for Colorado.
The main reason why Babcock hasn't re-signed in Detroit is the money issue. Ken Holland's contract will pale to Babcock's should Babcock get his wish in being the league's highest-paid coach. Holland is the GM....Babcock's boss...and there's no way his head coach will be paid twice what he's being paid.
Trust me...this is the same scenario we've seen with Babcock in Anaheim. He wasn't as known or respected back then, so that's why not as much was made out of it. But there's a reason why people keep mentionning Toronto as his future destination and no other team: people talk and rumors spread...but quite often, those rumors often happen to be true.
Toronto is one of few NHL teams that has the money (and is willing to) to make Mike Babcock the league's highest-paid coach. There will also be a coaching-vacancy in Toronto once the regular season ends. Babcock is #1 on Toronto's radar and this has been the case since the end of last season. This is why Peter Horacek was only given an 'interim' title when he replaced Carlyle. The only way Horacek remains Toronto's coach is by leading them to the Stanley Cup finals, which will definitely not happen. They will not even make the playoffs. They will soon start unloading players in order to position themselves as low as possible in the standings in order to get a top player in the upcoming entry draft. And once the draft is over, they'll let their new coach (likely Babcock) and new GM (my pick is Mark Hunter) take care of building the Maple Leafs into a winner. It won't happen in their first year, but progress will start showing in years 2 and 3. By year 5, they'll be Stanley Cup contenders.
You've heard it here, folks!
