MONEY MATTERS
A look at how Babcock’s salary stacks up to other sports.
For so long, the Toronto Maple Leafs’ best hope for ending their Stanley Cup drought was money. The Maple Leafs have long been considered the most valuable franchise in the National Hockey League, and the team’s management could therefore redirect a lot of that money toward talented free agents. They could be the Yankees of hockey.
It never worked out for the Maple Leafs as well as it did for the Yankees in the late 1990’s, but it was an understandable plan. Money was Toronto’s advantage, and they tried to leverage it.
They burned draft picks and prospects in the name of acquiring expensive players in the primes of their careers. Or, they splurged in free agency.
And then the NHL locked out its players, scrapping the 2004-05 season, in search of a hard salary cap that limited spending on rosters.
Once the league won the battle, the Maple Leafs’ advantage, as it existed, disappeared. Since then, the Leafs have made the playoffs just once, in a lockoutshortened season. Still, Forbes listed the Maple Leafs as the most valuable franchise in the league, at US$1.3-billion, when it ranked the 30 teams last November.
If you can only spend a fixed sum of that on players, how do you use the rest, then? Well, you certainly pocket a lot of it, which the co-owners of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment certainly have. However, the other way to use that money is to spend it on management, facilities, player development and, yes, coaching.
On Wednesday, the Maple Leafs committed to doing just that, reaching a reported eightyear, US$50-million deal with Mike Babcock, who spent the last 10 seasons with Detroit. Whether or not Babcock deserves it remains to be seen. By consensus, Babcock is the best coach in the NHL — a Stanley Cup champion in 2007-08, and the leader of Olympic gold medal-winning teams for Canada in 2010 and 2014. The Red Wings hired Babcock before the 2005-06 season, and they had the highest points percentage during his decade in charge.
However, his Red Wings teams have struggled recently, with just a single playoff series win over the last four years. They have not reached the league’s final four since losing to Pittsburgh in the Stanley Cup final in 2008-09. As well, there have been rumblings that 52-year-old Babcock’s gruff style agitated some of Detroit’s veterans.
It is undeniable that Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan obtained the best coach on the market, though, using his team’s money to give him an advantage. Sure, he had some other things to offer Babcock: the chance to live in one of North America’s great cities (the last two winters not withstanding), an opportunity to have more say in determining personnel and the ability to collaborate with a free-spending ownership group. Since Shanahan came to Toronto, the Maple Leafs’ front-office staff has definitely become more forward-thinking. That has to be appealing to Babcock, especially because the team’s current roster is about to be dismantled.
At the end of the day, the Leafs’ hammer had to be the money. Detroit’s final offer was reportedly capped at US$20million over five years. Buffalo reportedly offered more than that, with a seemingly smoother path toward contention. The Leafs won the day with cash. (The Leafs also extended former coach Randy Carlyle’s contract by two years after last season, instead of firing him and looking for a long-term coach then. Carlyle’s extra year actually adds to the price the Leafs will be paying.)
Babcock’s deal also has the effect of redefining the market for NHL coaches, lifting the ceiling into another stratosphere. He is now closer to the highest-paid coaches in other sports: San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich makes about US$11-million according to ESPN’s Marc Stein, while the richest NFL coaches make upwards of $7-million. Of course, Popovich and NFL coaches tend to have significant control over personnel, and Babcock should, too.
Last season, Babcock’s desire to re-set the coaching market was a frequent talking point. Before Wednesday, Chicago’s Joel Quenneville had the highest annual salary for a NHL coach, at $2.75-million. Boston’s Claude Julien and the Kings’ Darryl Sutter followed him. With one signature, Babcock has more than doubled the ceiling for the league’s coaches. Should Boston’s new GM, Don Sweeney, who was named to his post earlier Wednesday, choose not to retain Julien, the asking price for someone with his resume just rose. Especially with all the other Babcock suitors, Buffalo, San Jose, possibly St. Louis, still looking for a coach.
There will still be concerns about the things that the Leafs have not done for so long — exercise patience, develop players well and, you know, win. The eight-year term of Babcock’s contract should help assuage fears that the Maple Leafs will try to rush things now that the marquee coach is here.
On Wednesday, though, the Maple Leafs did what they should always do — take advantage of their extreme wealth. Now come the far more nuanced parts.