Toronto Maple Leafs
Mike Babcock Admits Doing Wrong During Tenure as Maple Leafs Head Coach
Mike Babcock has clearly reflected on his past during the three-and-a-half years he was out of the NHL.
The Blue Jackets' newest head coach joined The Fan Morning Show on Thursday where he discussed his time with the Maple Leafs.
"When I went there and signed an eight-year deal, I thought I'd probably get five years in," Babcock said. "I got four-and-a-half years in. All the time I was in Toronto, I enjoyed it.
"Do I like the way I was talked about when I left? No. Do I think I did anything wrong? Absolutely."
In the days following Babcock's firing, reports came out that during a meeting with one of Toronto's rookies in the 2016-17 season (which was later revealed to be Mitch Marner), Babcock asked the player to rank his teammates from hardest-working to least-hardest working.
Reports said that the list was then revealed to teammates. However, in an interview with The Athletic's Pierre LeBrun, Babcock said it was only to one player.
"It was a good meeting, Mitch left. But then I was meeting, I’m pretty sure it was with (Tyler) Bozak, afterward," Babcock said. "Bozy was an important part of our team. What I ended up doing — and I made a big-time mistake, I knew as soon as I did it — when we were talking about competing and I said, ‘Well look where Mitch ranks it'.
“Well, as soon as I did that, and he saw the list, I knew that I had made a major mistake. After the meeting with Bozak, I went right into the dressing room. I grabbed Mitch and said, ‘Mitch, this is what I did. I screwed you here.’’’
Marner addressed the situation a week after Babock was let go from Toronto, saying it was what happened and was "unfortunate."
"He did apologize after," Marner said in November 2019. "I think he knew that he was mistaken for what he did. But for the three years that I was here after that situation, especially in my second and third year, he really trusted me out on the ice. I felt that he had the trust in me to put me out there in situations that he didn't in my first year.
"I had a pretty good relationship with him at the end of it."
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