Leafs Buy Brand New Shiny Expensive Coach

The Toronto Maple Leafs have hired a new coach, Mike Babcock, formerly of the Detroit Red Wings.

The Wings have been a thoroughbred team for decades. They do virtually everything right as an organization. They don't always take home all the marbles but when someone does take them all home, they inevitably have to take some from Detroit. The Wings are a perennial contender, unlike the team mentioned in the thread's title.

In the last decade the Leafs have only made the playoffs once. The decade before that was not bad. They didn't win it all but they were there in the playoffs. We have to get back to that, obviously.

en.wikipedia.org...

There are some quotes from the new coach of the Leafs at the following link:

www.thestar.com...

He doesn't really say anything significant, but I wouldn't have expected him to.

Being a modern coach in today's sporting world is something like being a rock and roll record producer. The team is in the studio. They are all rich. They are all talented. They are all famous. The record producer or coach really has only one job, but it's a doozy.

Keep the talent from making monumental jackasses of themselves.

. . . and win.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment will pay Babcock more than almost every other coach in all of professional sports. He will get $50,000,000 over eight years.

I know from personal experience that it is possible to buy expensive guitars and classic vintage amplifiers and still be a mediocre guitar player. Money can buy anything, anything, that is, except a relentless, thoughtful and considered and above all flexible application of effort to a difficult goal.

Unfortunately it is that intangible, unbuyable ingredient that is the main difference between winning and losing league championships in professional sports or contending consistently, as the Red Wings have done.

Anyway, good luck to the Leafs.

I don't think one could ask more (than a $50,000,000 coach) from the head office, except maybe to be very restrained and judicious about telling their hockey management folks what to do. You don't hire that sort of help, to then start overruling it.

The circus that has been the maple leafs for the past 50 years might finaly take a turn for the best, im a habs fan that has alot of friends who are die hard leafs fans, heres hoping the leafs can finaly have a decent hockey team.

a reply to: dukeofjive696969

What's black and blue and lives in the basement?

The Leafs, the Blue Jays, the Argos....

a reply to: nwtrucker

Paiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin!!!!

Don't say that! Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuch!

Sign me, "Bled Blue and White".

a reply to: ipsedixit
I was hoping he was going to the poor ol "Sabres". They need a shot in the arm, or kick in the pants. Great Coach, I wish him luck.

Habs fan here and hoping to see Toronto in a better spot. I love hockey when the competing teams play at "hate" level... lol Hard and intense without being dirty.

Glad you got Babcock instead of Buffalo.

GO! L... Nah, sorry... I can't even whisper it... lol

Detroit will miss Babcock....but OTOH, Detroit hasn't made it past the first round of the playoffs for at least the last three years.
So, maybe a change will shake up Detroit to do better...we want Stanley back

I think Babcock can do a lot for the Toronto team....and I wish them all the best with their new coach.

But, I cannot say Go, L_____ either

The thing that Toronto fans have to get through their skulls (Drillers and blasters needed.) is that there is no short cut to excellence.

Not even buying Babcock is equivalent to buying the kind of culture of excellence that exists in Detroit or has existed in Montreal over the decades. I don't care where these teams finished up. Nobody questions the culture around those organizations.

Toronto has fans who want a savior, like an unbelievable draft pick of the century (think Bobby Orr), who can elevate simply by being here. They want to be able to hang on to the sleazy culture of the scam and the fix that prevails in Toronto (the city, not the team), but still be excellent. That's why there are so many Toronto fans who complain that management in this town doesn't know how to "tank" properly and never gets the great draft picks because of it.

What Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment really needed to do is buy the Wings' entire ownership and infrastructure and bring them to Toronto, but, sadly pigs can't fly, and we have to pin our hopes on one of their ex-employees. I hope he paid attention when he was in Detroit and realized how much depth there was at the top of that organization.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Agreed. Lord Stanley is coming home next season!

Miss Babcock, but from what I've heard, Holland was planning on him leaving over a year ago.

a reply to: cmdrkeenkid

I didn't hear that so much as there was a disconnect between him and the players.
I thought there was a spark missing in the team the last month of so of the season.

I see Babcock is taking at least one Asst Coach with him: Hiller.

originally posted by: ugmold
a reply to: ipsedixit
I was hoping he was going to the poor ol "Sabres". They need a shot in the arm, or kick in the pants. Great Coach, I wish him luck.

I think that starts with Eichel though they need to build around him from a forward perspective.

I haven't really followed the 2015 NHL Draft news. There is a lot of it on line for the hard core fans, but in the wake of the Babcock hiring, I took a look, and most sources are predicting that the Leafs will take Dylan Strome in the fourth spot of the first round.

Strome is characterized as a Joe Thornton type player, very intelligent, with a great wrist shot, who might need to work on his skating. He is a terrific play maker and has scored a lot of goals for the Otters in the OHL. The expected number one pick, Connor McDavid, also plays for that team.

www.eliteprospects.com...



As a Leafs fan, I'd be more than happy to have a Joe Thornton, but I'm curious as to whether any deals might be in the works to get the Leafs a higher pick.

This year's draft crop is supposed to be a good one.

originally posted by: ipsedixit
As a Leafs fan, I'd be more than happy to have a Joe Thornton, but I'm curious as to whether any deals might be in the works to get the Leafs a higher pick.

This year's draft crop is supposed to be a good one.

I wouldn't see much of a reason or way for the Leafs to move up..

McDavid and Eichel aren't getting moved for any deal nor do the Leafs , very few teams, have the package available to land either so why would the Leafs move resources to move up 1 spot when multiple A level players will be there at 4.

a reply to: opethPA

It's true. Leafs will probably have Strome when the dust settles. I'm not knowledgeable enough to comment on what it would take to get McDavid away from Edmonton or Eichel away from Buffalo or Hanifin away from Arizona.

There is a rumor though, that everybody has their price.

I'm sure the Leafs are making inquiries as to what that price is in Buffalo, Edmonton and Phoenix. Draft day (June 26) is going to be interesting.

a reply to: ipsedixit

I do know that Detroit will get a third round pick out of the Babcock signing....FWIW.....although I don't think it has to be this year's draft.

a reply to: DontTreadOnMe

Some great players have been picked up down in the draft. That's where your scouting guys have to be very sharp. Red Wings European scout, Hakan Andersson has been outstanding for that team, suggesting both Pavel Datsyuk and Henrik Zetterberg as late round options.

Check this article out, where you will read, among other interesting facts, that Brett Hull went in the 6th round the year he was drafted.

thehockeywriters.com...

a reply to: ipsedixit

And they better stay sharp....neither of those players are young anymore.

a reply to: ipsedixit

Since 2012 the LA Kings and Chicago BlackHawks have MONOPOLISED the Stanley Cup Ping-Ponging it back and forth between them.

The Kings/Hawks both play a Possesion/Transition style of hockey which incorporates the NewAge Hockey System/NHS which is a System Management Program comprised of Intuitive Dynamic Analysis/IDA and Intuitive Dynamic Management /IDM.

The Kings began using the NHS in 2012 when Jarret Stoll and Greene brought the NHS data over from the Oilers where Pat Quinn has indoctrinated it into the NHL in 2009 after he discovered it online in 2007-08, and the Hawks began to use the NHS after Stan Bowman identified it after Sam Gagner and some of his teammates used it to help Sammy light his team up for 8 points , and Stan after identifying some "new transition tactics"| had his Managers source and implement it in 2013.


Since then both Babcock in Toronto and Mclellan in Edmonton have conned the entire NHL by cashing in on their expired resumes by demanding HUGE epic salaries from the 2 teams most likely to be fleeced....the Laffs and the Coilers.....this has been a massive case of userage because the NHLs curent Era cutting edge evolution is being led by the Kings Sutter and the Hawks Quenville.

Neither of these peso-pirates have been able to produce winning results with their outdated one-dimensional approches to NHL hockey.....they are the proverbial dinosaurs now and they KNEW the NHL was a-changing and that they were behind the curve with no way to catch up so they simply cashed in ASAP.

Babcock needs to "audit" the 2009-10-11-12-13...OILERS....lol....and the 2012 Kings-2013 Hawks-2014-Kings-2015 Hawks-2016 Pens....seriously...BECAUSE THEY ALL USE THE SAME SYSTEM BASED ON THE SAME PHILOSOPHY.The Blues-Yotes-Flames-Isles-Rngers and others now also use the NHS Possesion/Transition System.

All of the above NHL Teams follow and apply Moma2s NewAge Hockey System....and they all learned it from the 2009-2013 Oilers beginning with Stolly and Greene and the Kings in 2012 when they applied the NHS with about 25 games to go in a spiralling season and began a Cinderella run to the Championship.

This is ATS and you have just been tipped off to the single biggest ongoing CONSPIRACY in PROFESSIONAL SPORTS.....the creator of the exact Philosophy Systems and Tactics called the NewAge Hockey System which has been used to win the last 5 CONSECUTIVE STANLEY CUPS ....by teams who have all never paid a dime or admitted they were using this System and data instead scalping it offline and calling it "proprietary"....in fact the CONSPIRACY RUNS EVEN DEEPER.....the Advanced Stats /Blogging Communities CONSPIRED WITH THE OILERS TO SUPPRESS AND DISENFRANCHISE AND THEN UTILISE FREELY THIS DATA.Eakins-Dellow-.....a huge list of people were involved.The Advanced Stats Industry misrepresented the NHS data and said it was their own to gain entry into the NHL...they lied.....and they got jobs because they had COLLUSIONAL HELP FROM GUYS LIKE EAKINS......no one in the NHL would squeak about their Systems...no one...no one would validate the NHS because it could not be monopolised...they simply kept running up their Tabs using the data never intending to pay for it.This involves NHL Managers/Players/Coaches/Top Hockey Blogs/Websites/Top Hockey Anaylsts/MSM Reporter/In-House NHL Team Analysts.....et al.

Babcock needs to scoop them all and hire the NHSs Creator.