After weeks of rumors and speculation, the wait is over.
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The day is finally here. Mike Babcock has officially been named the 9th head coach in CBJ history. The deal is a two year deal at $4 million per season.
After a month of speculation and rumors, and complete silence from the Blue Jacket front office, we have ourselves a new head coach. That silence was deafening. Darren Dreger originally reported it way back on June 3rd, taking hockey twitter by storm.
Columbus fans and hockey fans in general had a few reactions. CBJ fans were split 50/50 it seemed. Some fans wanted the hard-nosed coach that could bring out the best in the players. While others, were shocked that the CBJ front office would bring in said hard-nosed coach and put him around a very young team. Is there a right or wrong answer?
Babcock has been away from the NHL for 4 years or so, and in the sports world, that’s an eternity. In 2021, he did accept the coaching job for the University of Saskatchewan, but in August of 2022, he would resign. The next day announcing he would retire. But like most coaches in any sport, it’s hard to stay away.
The question that most fans have is, has he changed? There were reports from a couple players of the years of mental abuse or feuding with players like Mike Commodore. He has come out publicly and said that back when he was coaching, he had no idea about mental health, and how to deal with it. Babcock has been an outspoken advocate for the Bell Let’s Talk awareness campaign, and other groups.
Until the season starts, obviously we really won’t get a good idea of how this is going to work out. There were early reports that the front office would keep the existing coaching staff on, since all are still under contract. From my perspective, keeping those guys on to help Babcock only makes sense in terms of knowing the players. But then again, devils’ advocates may say, that a fresh new staff should be brought in with Babcock for all new sets of eyes.
Whatever happens come fall, it is surely to be entertaining. Babcock will have a re-vamped blue line, a potential superstar center, a new goalie coach, and plenty of scoring threats, as the kids say “get your popcorn ready”, this could be fun to watch.