Could Edmonton lure Babcock?
Coveted coach has ties to Oilers organization
The Pizzaman Mike Ilitch has more than enough dough — a fortune estimated at $5 billion, according to Forbes — to toss at the head coach of his Detroit Red Wings, Mike Babcock, to retain his soughtafter services.
But does Babcock — winner of a Stanley Cup and two Olympic gold medals as a coach — want to stay in Detroit or try a new challenge?
Like here in Edmonton, or any of the other eight or nine possible destinations.
Babcock will have to decide if his Red Wings players are tired of hearing his voice, even if there’s been solid turnover over his 10 years there apart from veterans Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Niklas Kronwall.
He doesn’t want to overstay his welcome.
He’ll have to decide how he deals with one of the National Hockey League’s best owners in Ilitch — there is no way Babcock will want to hold Ilitch at gunpoint over a new contract that might be more than Ilitch wants to pay just to keep him. He respects him too much. Babcock also has the best working relationship in the league with general manager Ken Holland to coach.
That said, Babcock will be the No. 1 free-agent on the NHL market — apologies to three-time Cup winning winger Justin Williams — if he wants to leave the Red Wings after 10 years, 458 wins and a Stanley Cup with Detroit in 2008. He could command $4 million to $5 million a year, which reportedly would be double what the current highestpaid coach Joel Quenneville is getting with the Chicago Blackhawks and would certainly help to get coaching salaries around the NHL to where they should be.
Money would be no stumbling block for Oilers owner Daryl Katz and his drugstore millions.
There’s also this kid centre named Connor McDavid coming — if not to save the day, then perhaps help get the Oilers to the playoffs by the time they’re skating in their new downtown playground in 2016-17.
Everyone knows Babcock has a connection to Bob Nicholson, the former head of Hockey Canada through the two Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014, and how much of a sweet talker the now-Oilers CEO can be. Nicholson goes back to 1997 with Babcock, when he coached Canada’s world junior team.
The new Oilers president of hockey operations/GM Peter Chiarelli also was part of Canada’s management team at the 2014 Olympics, and Kevin Lowe also has a history with Babcock from the Olympics, of course. So there are ties there.
And absolutely, the Oilers will be into a full-court press if Babcock feels his run in Detroit is over.
They aren’t the only team looking for a coach, mind you. The Philadelphia Flyers, the Buffalo Sabres, the Toronto Maple Leafs, the San Jose Sharks and the New Jersey Devils all have headcoaching vacancies.
The Boston Bruins might need a new one if a new GM coming in doesn’t want coach Claude Julien. The St. Louis Blues could also be in the market if Ken Hitchcock and GM Doug Armstrong decide to part ways with Hitch’s contract up June 30.
The Anaheim Ducks, perhaps, could be looking if the Calgary Flames knock them off in Round 2 and they decide Bruce Boudreau isn’t the answer. Babcock used to coach Anaheim before he made way for Randy Carlyle in 2005.
Teams have to wait on Babcock, then the dominoes will fall for the other coaches out there (Todd McLellan, Peter DeBoer, Carlyle, Dan Bylsma, maybe Julien, maybe Hitchcock).
If Babcock wants to play the field, then the Oilers have a decision to make. If they want an experienced hand behind the bench, they best not wait too long on ex-San Jose Sharks coach McLellan, who is behind the bench for Team Canada at the world championships in Prague.
McLellan would obviously be very attractive to the Wings after working with Babcock until 2008. He’s currently the best free agent, as we wait on Babcock, who will be talking to his GM Holland Friday morning, although no decisions on prolonging the marriage or dissolving it are expected then.
Babcock, 52, likes winning and may want some say in personnel decisions. He might not be getting that in Detroit, where Holland ably runs the store and has shrewdly rebuilt the team.
Babcock acknowledges the quality of the young players in Detroit and their drafting acumen for a team that hasn’t picked inside top 10 since 1997, also how hard the group had to work just to make the playoffs, but said after the loss to the Lightning “you have to have big-time players up the middle and on the back-end.”
Can any of them replace Datsyuk or Zetterberg? Are any of them, say, Tampa Bay Lightning star Steven Stamkos or the New York Islanders’ Hart Trophy finalist John Tavares, both first-overall picks (in 2008 and 2009)?
Holland readily agrees the Wings have been blessed for the last 20 years in the middle.
“We had (Steve) Yzerman and (Sergei) Fedorov, then got Pav and Zetterberg,” said Holland. That’s an embarrassment of riches.
On the surface, Babcock would appear to have more than enough pieces in Detroit, a team that’s made the playoffs 24 straight years — the longest streak of any major professional team in any sport. But 10 years is a long time in one place, especially in hockey.
If you’re handicapping, the Sabres and the Maple Leafs are going into major rebuilds, the Oilers are in one (it seems like forever), the Flyers have two of the NHL’s best forwards in Claude Giroux and Jake Voracek but are not close to being a Cup threat, and the Sharks may be starting over with the two best players Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau in their mid-30s.
The Devils have a fine goalie in Corey Schneider and some good young defencemen, but no offence to speak of.
The Blues are a strong team but if Hitchcock were to leave, would they buck up for Babcock?
They’re a budget-conscious team.
The Bruins has some good parts, but has little in the pipeline.
The Oilers have holes, for sure — in goal and on defence — but have one of the top 10 groups of young forwards with Taylor Hall, Jordan Eberle, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Nail Yakupov.
And McDavid is coming.