Calm before market storm
Leaf coach unfolds black-and-blueprint, free agency looms
DALLAS— Summoned from the Maple Leafs draft table to meet reporters in the midst of Saturday’s third round of the NHL draft, Mike Babcock was offered a seat at a lectern by a team employee.
The head coach bristled at the suggestion. “I don’t intend to be here long enough to sit down,” he said. “It is the off-season.”
Fair enough. Babcock spends nearly every day of the hockey season dutifully serving up his unique brand of Saskatchewan-brewed sound bites on behalf of his employer, so perhaps there’s a case to be made he ought to be exempt from summertime gasbagging. Still, anyone who’s spent a few seasons observing Babcock in public situations knows that, when he’s given the chance to opine on the state of his team or the broader lessons of his sport, he rarely finds himself at a loss for words.
So Babcock stood and talked on Saturday, probably longer than he insisted he would. Certainly the coach had a strong take on the league-wide habit of general managers and scouting directors highfiving while they attempt to convince their fan bases they’ve spent the draft weekend procuring steal after steal.
“Every team here today walks out and says, ‘I can’t believe that guy was there. I can’t believe that guy was there.’ We all have a different (draft) list. That’s why the guy’s there,” Babcock said with a chuckle. “So everybody leaves pumped up. But two or three years from now, someone went today in the second or third round that’s going to be a star. We just hope he’s on our team.”
That’s the bottom line, of course. Outside the top few picks in the typical draft, most of the talent snapped up amounts to a work in progress whose ultimate success will depend on myriad factors, from the depth of the player’s work ethic to the strength of his new franchise’s developmental arm. Even Toronto’s top pick here — 18-year-old Swedish defenceman Rasmus Sandin, selected 29th overall on Friday — is likely a few years away from playing in the NHL, if he ever does.
Babcock, for his part, is clearly more interested in players who can help his club in the here and now. The coach said, for instance, that he’d be happy to help out in the wooing of potential free agents — which may send him flying into action early next week, when potential free-agent-to-be John Tavares is reportedly planning on meeting with a select group of suitors at agent Pat Brisson’s Los Angeles office (even if many around the league expect Tavares will ultimately re-sign with the Islanders, as is the NHL custom).
Whether or not the Leafs can woo a big-name free agent, Babcock is of the belief that one of his club’s biggest needs is an accumulation of experience of the pain-inducing kind. This year’s first-round Game 7 against the Bruins, wherein the Maple Leafs entered the third period with a 4-3 lead and couldn’t close the deal, is a case in point.
“We weren’t good enough. So we’re not deep enough. Not enough battle scars. Not getting slapped around enough and having failure and letting (the media) kick the crap out of us for a couple of months, come back, get back together,” Babcock said.
A few reporters laughed at the notion that Babcock might actually welcome a piling-on from the local pundits as a team-building exercise.
“No,” he said, assuring everyone he was serious. “And you get tougher. And understand it’s a hard league. We always want everything in the immediate gratification world. That’s just not the National Hockey League. It’s earn the right to be a champion.”
Babcock had a handful of other notable takes. He offered his thoughts …
On the imminent return to the KHL of Marlies stalwart Miro Aaltonen, once thought to be a front-runner as the 2018-19 fourth-line centreman: “Alts came here and won himself a Calder Cup championship and it went real good. But we also acquired (Swedish centreman Par) Lindholm. And so players make decisions based on that.”
On Vegas’s run to the Cup final: “They drafted a whole bunch of (Zach) Hyman and (Connor) Browns – in other words, workers that compete, because those are the guys that are kind of available at that spot. And they worked. Great team speed. A lot of fun. I think it’s great for hockey.”
On his relationship with rookie general manager Kyle Dubas: “We’ll continue to do what we always do as a GM and coach — you talk a lot, and disagree a lot, and agree a lot … We’re going to have lots of good debate. We’ve had lots of good debate already and will continue to do that. And I think that’s all part of the process, but I don’t think that’s different than with any other team.”
On what Babcock called the “stockpile” of talent on the Marlies roster: “A lot of them are going to play in the league. That doesn’t necessarily mean they’re going to play on our team, and I think that’s important.”
To that end, Dubas wrapped up the draft by telling reporters that, as much as Calgary and Carolina made a significant swap on Saturday that involved defencemen Dougie Hamilton and Noah Hanifin, he expects the NHL trade market to “unleash” in the next couple of days. In other words, everyone’s waiting to see if Tavares is a Steven Stamkos-esque tease or an actual star on the move.
“Depending on who’s available and who’s not on July 1, I think you’re going to see trades come very fast and it will be more of a frenzy,” Dubas said. “But we’ll see. I think everybody’s just kind of sitting and waiting and being patient.”
Patience, of course, has never been Babcock’s, or any coach’s, strongest virtue. Dubas joked about attempting to placate Babcock’s incessant demands for organizational improvement by using the bulk of his nine picks on the coach’s favourite targets.
“I know Mike’s wish list is both private and public. He wants centres and (defencemen). So he’s happy, and really that’s all that matters today,” Dubas said.
As for Babcock — nearly 10 minutes into a media scrum he’d insisted would be shorter, the coach sounded like a man who won’t be content until the Maple Leafs float through a draft in the giddy haze of a Stanley Cup hangover. Fair enough.
“We’ve got ’er going in the right direction, obviously. In saying that, it’s not easy,” Babcock said. “I just saw a 32-yearold (Alex) Ovechkin lift the Cup. (Steve) Yzerman was 31. Very few of us are blessed to do it at 20. So we’ve got lots of work to do, and probably lots of hard knocks coming, too.”