Babcock chase familiar to Bowman
CHICAGO— In explaining his decision to jump to the Maple Leafs, Mike Babcock has publicly downplayed the influence of financial concerns.
On Thursday he told a media assemblage in Toronto that he was “embarrassed” that details of his new riches, an eight-year deal worth $50 million, were public knowledge.
“I never thought about money once in my life,” he said.
Well, maybe once or twice. Those who know Babcock will tell you that the man who is now the richest coach in the game has long considered NHL coaches underpaid.
“I know it was always in his craw. He used to tell me the Detroit Pistons coach was making twice as much as he did,” Scotty Bowman was saying here on Thursday. “He knows the work you have to put in to be a coach.”
Still, Bowman said Babcock’s move to Toronto is about far more than money. Bowman, a Hall of Fame coach who is now a senior advisor with the Blackhawks, would know.
To call Bowman the Babcock of his era could be construed as an insult. Bowman has nine Stanley Cups on his coaching resume, after all; Babcock has one. But just as this spring brought us the “Babwatch,” the flood of reporting and speculation that preceded his landing in Toronto on Thursday, the spring of 1979 brought with it a buzz around Bowman. There weren’t second-by-second Twitter updates or live TV feeds of jet-to-limo transfers. But the frenzy was considerable enough that Star hockey writer Frank Orr coined a name for it: “The Great Find-a-Job-for-Scotty-Bowman Caper.”
“It was a tough decision for me,” Bowman said. At the time Bowman was coming off a fourth straight Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens; he said he thought long and hard about trying to win a fifth. But things were changing in Montreal. GM Sam Pollock, whom Bowman admired and trusted, had left his post to work on the business side of the operation. Cornerstone goaltender Ken Dryden and centreman Jacques Lemaire were retiring. And Bowman had a clause in his contract that allowed him a three-week window to explore his options elsewhere.
The Maple Leafs, who had just been swept by Bowman’s Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs, were among his suitors.
Toronto owner Harold Ballard offered Bowman the job of general manager, dangling a contract that included escalating playoff bonuses, a company car and an undisclosed raise on his Montreal salary. The Buffalo Sabres and Washington Capitals also made pitches. Bowman said there were many considerations that went into his eventual decision to accept a double role as Buffalo’s head coach and general manager. Money was definitely one. He was earning about $90,000 at the time in Montreal.
“I doubled my contract (in Buffalo),” he said.
Hockey’s economic landscape has shifted drastically since. Accounting for inflation, Bowman’s $180,000 haul would be worth the equivalent of about $625,000 today. Babcock is in line to make an average annual salary approximately 10 times that amount, about $6.25 million.
Just as Babcock has repeatedly cited the importance of family’s wishes, specifically those of his wife, Bowman said that his 1979 considerations included the impact on his home life. “A lot of the factors would be similar (to Babcock’s situation),” Bowman said. “My wife was from the U.S., and she never complained in Montreal. But she couldn’t speak one word of French. So I put it all together — I had five children growing up in Montreal — and I said, ‘This is a great opportunity.’ ”
Bowman professed tremendous respect for the job Babcock has done since landing his first NHL job with the Ducks in 2002. “He was in Anaheim with a team that wasn’t considered a threat to win the Stanley Cup, and they got to within one game (in the 2003 final).”
And in 10 years in Detroit, Babcock made two trips to the Cup final, hoisted the mug in 2008, and continued the franchise’s 24-season string of playoff appearances, last month losing a first-round series to the Lightning in seven games.
“Detroit didn’t have the scoring. But Babcock designed a pretty good system,” Bowman said. “Detroit had a pretty air-tight defensive structure. Puck possession, not getting too far ahead of the play, not playing a careless game . . . They came very close in that series. I thought over the course of the series, they might have outplayed (Tampa). Even the seventh game.”
How long will it take for the Maple Leafs to pick up the pieces of what Bowman described as a “teardown”? He said Tampa Bay, currently leading their Eastern final with the Rangers two games to one, is an instructive parallel. GM Steve Yzerman is in his fifth year with the Lightning. And though Yzerman inherited a team that had already drafted the likes of cornerstones Steven Stamkos and Victor Hedman, they had also missed the play- offs three straight seasons.
“They were right at the bottom of the league,” Bowman said. “Tampa is probably a good example of how long it takes.”
Still, Bowman said there is fierce competition in the East, lauding teams like Florida, Columbus and Ottawa for stockpiling young talent. And there are no secrets to building teams. Bowman pointed to the two franchises playing in the Western Conference final, the Anaheim Ducks and the Chicago Blackhawks, the latter of which employ Bowman’s son, Stan, as their GM.
“Look at Chicago and Anaheim. Both teams have 11 drafted players in their lineups, 11 each,” Bowman said. “And they’re not all low picks . . . Building through the draft is probably the longest (process) and maybe the most painful. But it’s also very rewarding.”
Babcock has spoken of the “pain” that’s ahead in Leafland. After Bowman’s 1979 move, he spent most of a decade feeling some of his own. Though the Sabres made regular trips to the playoffs and got to the NHL semifinals in his first year, he never managed to deliver a Cup to Western New York. He didn’t win another championship until he resurfaced as head coach in Pittsburgh in 1991-92.
After all the hubbub and an mammoth pay raise, will Babcock fare better on the other end of the QEW?
“It’s a big challenge to go to a market that’s stumbled around for, not all the time, but quite some time . . . But he’s probably thinking it’s the challenge he was looking for,” Bowman said. “He’s not a dreamer. It’s not like he’s always had super players, too. But it’s not like you’re on a plan to have to do it next year. There’s only one way to go, which has got to be up.”