Mike Babcock moved from one Original Six franchise to another Wednesday, agreeing to an eight-year, US$50 million deal to coach the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The Maple Leafs announced the hiring to put to an end months of speculation about Babcock’s future with the Detroit Red Wings, where he spent the past 10 seasons and won a Stanley Cup in 2008. Babcock was to be introduced at a news conference yesterday.
Although Babcock was under contract with Detroit through June 30, the Red Wings granted him permission to speak to other teams on May 8.
Photo: AP
The deal makes Babcock the NHL’s highest-paid coach. He will reportedly receive a large signing bonus and make between US$5 million and US$6 million a season.
By hiring Babcock, the Leafs must send a third-round pick to Detroit as compensation.
Landing Babcock is a major coup for Brendan Shanahan, who in the past 13 months since taking over as president has fired general manager Dave Nonis, coach Randy Carlyle, interim Peter Horachek and several assistants and scouts.
“I’m proud of Shanny, I’m proud that he dreamt big,” Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment president and CEO Tim Leiweke said. “He got the big whale… It should give everyone great hope about the future of this organization. Mike Babcock is a phenomenal coach, and I think we’re really lucky to get him.”
Detroit general manager Ken Holland said Babcock told him of his decision on Wednesday morning.
“My offers last June were a four-year term. Again in January, it was a four-year term,” Holland said. “As we sat yesterday morning, I said: ‘Mike, the best I can do is five years.’ When you’ve been in the same city as long as I have, and as long as Mike has, you don’t get much longer term than four and five years. So I think that certainly part of the decisionmaking process probably for Mike was the amount of term that he could get in Toronto.”
In selecting Toronto, Babcock goes from a Red Wings franchise that has reached the playoffs for an NHL-leading 24 consecutive seasons to a team that has struggled competitively. Toronto missed the playoffs last season for the ninth time in 10 years.
The Maple Leafs have also not won a Stanley Cup since 1967, a season before the NHL expanded from its original six franchises. The Red Wings, by comparison, have won the championship four times since 1997.
The 52-year-old Babcock also coached Canada to Olympic gold medals in 2010 and last year.
He brings stability and a high-profile face to a franchise that is on its fourth full-time coach since Paul Maurice took over in 2006.
The Maple Leafs had a vacancy after Carlyle was fired in January, and replaced on an interim basis by assistant Horachek.
Babcock’s decision comes as a slight surprise, given that he indicated last week that he hated losing and wanted to be part of a team that had an opportunity to win immediately.
The Maple Leafs have an over-priced and aging roster, and questions at goaltending. The team unraveled last season. After holding a 19-9-3 record in mid-December last year, Toronto closed the season going 11-35-8 to finish 15th in the 16-team Eastern Conference standings.
On the bright side, Babcock is reunited with Shanahan, who took over as the Maple Leafs president last year. Shanahan played for Babcock in Detroit.
Babcock earned US$2 million per season in his previous four-year contract and the corporately owned Maple Leafs are one of the NHL’s most profitable franchises. They were last valued by Forbes as being worth an NHL-high US$1.3 billion.
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