2019/20 NHL Season

I know a few of us were talking about the Sharks hiring Mike Babcock but since when has it become so difficult to hire a fired coach



My gut response regarding the future of Mike Babcock was something along the lines of: “Oh, he’ll be back in the NHL in no time. Coaching is in his blood. Regardless of if he lost the Maple Leafs room after four years, some GMs won’t be able to resist all those rings and medallions.”

Digging a little deeper, Babcock’s whopper of a contract — his record-setting $5.875 million annual salary is guaranteed through June 30, 2023 — stands as quite the roadblock.

The NHL’s priciest bench buyout is getting paid more to not coach than anyone in the NHL is getting paid to coach (Florida’s Joel Quenneville is the runner-up at $5.25 million).

We’re not quite into Roberto “My Contract Sucks” Luongo territory here, but escaping the outstanding debt owed to Babcock will be tricky business for MLSE.

I rang up Neil Glasberg of PBI Sports & Entertainment. He’s a professional negotiator and personal-brand manager who represents 40-plus coaches (but not Babcock) at the NHL and AHL levels.

Ten times he’s facilitated a coach’s contract swap from one GM to another, perhaps most memorably John Tortorella’s from Vancouver to Columbus.

NHL coach-employment agreements include a “right of offset,” a rule that forbids double-dipping of any sort.

So, it’s in the Leafs’ best interest to have Babcock back in the workforce as soon as possible, earning as much as possible to mitigate their losses.

Any income Babcock earns from now on — be it in coaching, consulting, media, working for Hockey Canada, whatever — is subtracted from what the Leafs owe him, but Toronto must make him whole.

Now, Babcock can’t simply ski and hunt his days away and watch the money pile up. The onus is on him to at least try to find employment.

“You can’t just sit back on the couch and collect,” Glasberg explains. But: “He could say, ‘I spoke to three general managers, and there are no openings, and I’m not going to accept a lesser job, so I’m going to accept a lateral or progressive job, and those jobs don’t come available very often.’ ”

When a head job does open up, a delicate negotiation begins. Say, purely for example, a team like Vancouver or Calgary comes knocking. If they low-ball Kyle Dubas and offer to pay Babcock $2.5 million, Dubas could hang up the phone or get the league involved. Glasberg has seen that happen before.

Glasberg says the next club to hire Babcock must pay “a market-representative salary,” and — even though his reputation has just taken a hit — Babcock’s closest comparables would be Claude Julien and Todd McLellan, each of whom earns about $5 million.

Some owners might insist the interested new employer take on all of the coach’s salary or nothing at all.

“It’s not the right approach, but sometimes emotions get in the way. I’ve had this happen where I’ve literally had to negotiate with both sides,” Glasberg says. “The challenge is, he’s very expensive. He’s at least a $4 million guy or a $4.5 million guy.”

That price tag alone eliminates a swath of teams, especially if they still have an outstanding tab on their current coach. (Not a problem for Seattle, but it doesn’t play games until 2021.)

“Most teams aren’t going to get in the way of a guy getting another job, unless they’re in the same conference,” Glasberg says. “Then it starts to get a little bit uglier.”

Why would Dubas subsidize a coach in, say, Tampa (sorry, Jon Cooper, just a hypothetical) when they’re battling for the same title?

We’re not saying Babcock’s NHL coaching career is over by any means.

We’re saying someone is going to have to pay a pretty penny to keep it alive.

Nasty crosscheck there, these aren't much better.




Funny how tough everyone gets with a visor on and a stick in hand.  Bring fighting back.

That video doesn't show the second cross check, which is pretty ridiculous

Marbles?

Ryan Getzlaf ripped into his Anaheim teammates after another loss on Saturday.



  Getzlaf thought the Ducks gave up after allowing Tampa Bay to take a 2-1 lead with a power play goal in the second period of a 6-2 game. "It’s a results-based business," Getzlaf said in an extended postgame assessment of what ails the Ducks. "I don’t care if we’re rebuilding or regrouping or whatever the heck we’re doing, we’ve got to compete at a high level. I can deal with losses if we play hard all night long. That’s not an issue. But it’s about finding that consistency throughout 60 minutes of hockey that allows us to stay in games and not feel bad for ourselves. It’s a terrible habit to learn in this league. That’s how teams, organizations, stay in that (losing) position for a long time. If you accept losing or being close, then it’s hard to get out of it. It’s hard to play in this league that way." It should be interesting to see how Anaheim reacts Monday against the high-flying Islanders at home.

Pretty crazy stories coming out about Babcock and his techniques. Toronto is all about the drama and it might hurt Babcock moving forward.

Two guys willing to go on the record? Case closed. The coach is guilty as charged and needs to go.

The GM should tell the players this is his last day and it’s ok to fight back today and then fire him.

The NHL is turning into a bunch of crybaby pussies.

Suck it up Marner

My thoughts exactly. Was the coach wrong? yeah that is kinda messed up, since the technique didn't work at all. But why does it matter only after hes been fired?

As far as the Peters thing... (Not saying the alleged incident is right) But how come its been 10 FREAKING YEARS! And this allegation is just now coming out? 

Hard to believe, but if the season ended right now the Sharks would be in the playoffs. Yes, I know how early it is, but they’re about 1/3 through the season. They’re lucky, with the way they started the season, to be in their current position. Now lets hope they do something with it!