Leafs ‘night-and-day different’ from this time last year
Coach Babcock excited by lottery win, Marner’s MVP award, Marlies’ playoff run
It was just about a year ago that the Maple Leafs hired Mike Babcock, signing him to an eight-year, $50million contract to coach a team to which history had not been kind and the hopes for it seemed bleak.
Fast forward through a 2015 draft that garnered the Leafs elite junior Mitch Marner, a 2016 draft that should land them franchise centre Auston Matthews, and a Toronto Marlies playoff run that is entering the second round, and the future seems quite bright.
“It’s been a good week for the Leafs,” Babcock said Tuesday. “We’re in a way better situation than we were a year ago — night-and-day different.
“We’re excited about it. Our minorleague team is in the second round, got a lot of real good players who are going to play in the NHL for a long, long time. We’ve got good players in junior. We have lots of draft picks this year. We plan on having a real strong draft. That sets us up.
“The real good teams end up with 10-year runs. That’s what we’re hop- ing to do. It will take us some time to get where we want to be, but we’re obviously trending in the right direction.”
In a day of accolades, both Marner and Babcock were celebrated. Babcock learned he’d get an honorary doctorate from the University of Saskatchewan in his home province. It’s his second such honorary degree, having received one from McGill.
Marner, meanwhile, was named the recipient of the Red Tilson Trophy as the Ontario Hockey League’s most valuable player. He joins last year’s recipient, Connor McDavid, and the 2014 winner, Connor Brown, Marner’s future teammate with the Maple Leafs.
Marner finished third in OHL scoring with 116 points in 57 games, eclipsing the century mark for the second season in a row. He also passed 200 career assists and 300 career points in the junior league.
“He is an elite player,” Babcock said, adding that with the Leafs set to pick first in the NHL draft, “he’s going to have more good players to play with . . . To me, that’s a huge deal.
“It helps him. He’s an elite player, got an elite hockey mind. He’s a small guy, but he doesn’t seem to mind. He can play.”
Marner’s London Knights are in the OHL final, starting Thursday at home to Niagara. Marner, like everyone else connected to the Maple Leafs, watched Saturday as the team won the NHL draft lottery, and with it, the right to draft first overall.
“As a Leaf fan, it’s pretty special to see that first overall pick go to them,” he said. “For whoever they pick, just make sure you’re ready to play.”
The pick is likely going to be Matthews, a natural centre. There had been talk Marner would play centre in the NHL, a smaller player in the mould of Doug Gilmour. But he won the Tilson award playing as a right winger for most of the year.
“The wing was the place for me this year,” Marner said. “Playing with Christian Dvorak and Matthew Tkachuk, I knew it could be something special. I knew if I go to the wing, I would play with those two. It went great. Maybe in a couple of years, maybe I’ll be a centreman. For the time being, playing the wing is fine with me. It doesn’t matter where I’m playing in the future.”
As for the Leafs, Babcock seemed to chuckle when the thought of finishing dead last again next year was brought up.
“I don’t know if we’re going to have a better record or not, I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about it,” Babcock said. “What I worry about is the process.
“We’re going to have much better players. They’re going to be way younger, but they’ll be way better players with much bigger upside. We’re going to be more fun to watch. If we stick with the process, we’ve got a chance to be better than we were last year, which isn’t saying much, but still trending in the right direction. That’s the key.”