Hunter would also make an excellent choice as many "in the know" (no not you this time Smuler) say it was he who helped to persuade Babs to leave crappy detroit, screw buffalo and head to the Promised Land of TO.
What you heard is possible. However, Shanahan met with Babcock recently when both were in Prague for the World Championships. Babcock actually met with a few team representatives there. From what i've heard, he went back to Detroit last Monday and asked them for permission to speak with other teams on an official basis. He wanted to check around to see how much he could get fetch on the market. After speaking with a couple of teams (Buffalo and San Jose), he asked Detroit what their final offer was. It was rumoured to be $20 for 5 years. Babcock wanted longer term, but was denied. He spoke with the Blue & the Sharks and they were out of the bidding because of money (and term) reasons. He then spoke to the Sabres and Terry Pegula offered him $50 million for 10 years. They were also willing to give him the power he wanted in regards to player personnel & player movement. What i also heard was that Shanahan had told him in Prague that he'd want Babcock to get back to them once he got Buffalo's final offer since MLSE might be willing to match the top offer he got. Tuesday night, Buffalo was nearly 100% certain they'd be announcing Babcock's hiring on the following day.
So Wednesday morning, Babcock went to visit Ken Holland at his house and told him he'd be leaving the Red Wings organization. The Wings were unwilling to match Buffalo's offer. Shortly after, word got around that Guy Boucher & his agent were in Toronto negotiating Boucher's contract to become the Leafs' next coach. Babcock spoke with his family and i'm sure he wanted their input. Did Maureen Babcock prefer moving to Buffalo, or would she prefer Toronto if they chose to improve on Buffalo's offer?
After speaking with his family, Babcock contacted the Leafs and told them about Buffalo's final offer. He told them they'd have his name on a contract if they improved on Buffalo's deal. So the Leafs interrupted their meeting with Boucher and started looking at numbers. The MLSE board was contacted and they gave Shanahan and his team their okay to go after Babcock. So the Leafs came up with an 8-year, $50 million offer where the first two years of his contract would be front-loaded where Babcock will earn $8 million per season in his first two contract years. Other items were discussed including how much input he'd have in player personnel decisions & at 11:30 am, Mike Babcock called Ken Holland and told him he'd be signing with the Leafs. He also told the Sabres about his decision, which supposedly totally pissed them off & they supposedly felt he'd been using them all along as leverage in his negotiations.
What this means is that it's not only a victory for the Leafs & Babcock, but a huge victory for the coaching fraternity. The current second-highest paid coach is Joel Quenneville at $2.75 million. Next on the list are Claude Julien and Darryl Sutter. With Babcock's huge raise, coaches contracts will go up and because of this, many teams will start doing like Philadelphia did and hire coaches in the university or junior ranks in order to save $$.
And meanwhile, poor Guy Boucher is still looking for a head coaching job. He's supposedly approached the Devils. My guess is that the Devils will look elsewhere, possibly at Dan Bylsma, who was Ray Shero's coach in Pittsburgh. The Leafs are rumoured to have offered Boucher an assistant coaching job, but currently he'd rather take his time and see what happens elsewhere. I was told he'd likely head back to Switzerland if he can't find a head coaching job in the NHL.
