Coaches dodge comment on Babcock’s raise
CHICAGO — For two days, Todd McLellan was the highest-paid coach in the National Hockey League — his five-year deal with the Edmonton Oilers at $3 million US per season nudging him ahead of Joel Quenneville’s $2.75 million annual stipend in Chicago.
Then came the Mike Babcock blockbuster, eight years at an average of $6.25 million per season to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs, and the salary scale suddenly jumped the shark. And the ex-Shark.
So it seemed a reasonable idea to ask Quenneville, with his two Stanley Cups to Babcock’s one, what he reckoned he was now worth.
“Did he say 12?” Scotty Bowman joked, standing around a quiet corner in United Center, 100 metres or so down the hallway from where the Hawks’ coach had fielded questions prior to Game 3 of the Western Conference final. Sadly, no. Quenneville demurred Thursday, offering only a smile and a twinkle in the eye before saying, “We’ll let you guys talk about that. I just watched (Babcock’s) news conference prior to coming in here. Big cheer walking up to the microphone.
“Happy for him. We’ll see how that all plays out.”
Anaheim Ducks coach Bruce Boudreau, still looking for his first Cup, also did a fast shuffle around the Babcock question.
“Oh, Jesus. I’m happy for Mike, but I’m also really happy being in Anaheim doing what I’m doing,” Boudreau said. “I don’t worry about him. He’s his own guy. If he’s happy, then I’m happy for him. He’s a good guy.”
Of course, Boudreau feels as though he’s been coaching on the high wire without a net all season, so maybe he’s not comfortable talking about Babcock’s deal being the rising tide that lifts all boats in the coaching ranks.
Anyway, Bowman, the greatest coach in NHL history, isn’t convinced it’s a whole new world for coaches just because a couple of teams got all carried away by a bidding war over Babcock’s services.
“For some (it will be),” said Bowman, still remarkably youthful-looking at 81. “Not for all of them. There’s always coaches in the league who have higher stature than others.”
Babcock just happened to be the most coveted free agent in a fevered market. Bowman knows what that’s like. He was just a few decades too early.
He was making $90,000 a year coaching the Montreal Canadiens to four Cups in a row, five in seven years from 1973-79. He jumped to Buffalo for the coach/GM post when the Sabres “offered me twice as much.
“I went to Buffalo because after the third Cup, (Habs GM) Sam Pollock, brilliant man, left the hockey (side) after the 1978 season. We won the next year with the same team, but I didn’t feel as a coach that the future was that great.
“If they would have brought in Emile Francis or Harry Sinden, they were the top managers at the time, I would have been more comfortable. I didn’t mind Irving Grundman, but he wasn’t a hockey guy.”
At his peak, Bowman didn’t do so badly.
He coached Pittsburgh to the 1992 Cup for the same money ailing Bob Johnson was making before Badger Bob’s death (less a bonus Bowman didn’t know about), but had his salary doubled when he signed with the Red Wings in 1993-94.
“The best I ever did, I was the first coach that ever made a million. In Detroit, they paid me after we won the two Cups (in 1997 and ’98). That’s 20 years ago now, nearly.” For the era, that was huge. Babcock said at Thursday’s news conference that he never once thought about the money, but Bowman said, “(Mike) was always talking about the Pistons coach. Same city. I think he made five (million) or something.”
There’s never been much disclosure about coaching salaries, but Bowman said the coaches themselves are kept abreast by longtime U of Calgary coach George Kingston, who had several stints in the NHL and now volunteers as managing director of the NHL Coaches’ Association.
Bowman, whose greatest successes came with clubs that had well-established talent and feeder systems, says Babcock — who had the NHL’s very best of both in Detroit — will only be as successful in Toronto as the organization the Leafs build around him, something Babcock himself said Thursday.
“I heard a lot of good things about Mark Hunter as a recruiter,” Bowman said. “They’ve got to find players. There’s so many good teams now that have young players. Columbus, Tampa, Ottawa, Edmonton, Colorado.
“I guess the big trick is ... I was looking the other night at this (Anaheim-Chicago) series. Eleven players from each team were drafted by that team. That shows you: they’ve got to have the drafts.
“There’s a lot of competition now. That’ll be the key in Toronto, the people who come in to work with him. One man can’t do it. If he’s going to coach, he’s not going to be able to go out and get players. I think Mark Hunter is going to be a key guy.”