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Toronto Maple Leafs Roundtable: Mike Babcock’s Future

By Mike Stephens

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 23: Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock taels to the media after Game 7 of the 2019 First Round Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 23, 2019, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
BOSTON, MA - APRIL 23: Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock taels to the media after Game 7 of the 2019 First Round Stanley Cup Playoffs between the Boston Bruins and the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 23, 2019, at TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Fred Kfoury III/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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TORONTO, ON – APRIL 21: Mike Babcock head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs walks to the dressing room before playing the Boston Bruins in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Scotiabank Arena on April 21, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images)
TORONTO, ON – APRIL 21: Mike Babcock head coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs walks to the dressing room before playing the Boston Bruins in Game Six of the Eastern Conference First Round during the 2019 NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs at the Scotiabank Arena on April 21, 2019 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Peri Gallacher

The Leafs have come to a crossroads at this point with head coach Mike Babcock after their Game 7 loss to the Bruins— a loss that I personally attribute to a lack of adaptive coaching on Babcock’s part.

The Toronto Maple Leafs that Mike Babcock showed up to in 2015, are not the Leafs that he is coaching now. The amount of depth and ability within younger and newer players is more than enough to build plays that earn the W. But Babcock is a man of his own, who is set in his ways of relying on older players to get the job done. In the case of a playoff elimination game, only playing arguably one of the best players in the league right now [Auston Matthews] 18 or so minutes while AHL affiliate the Toronto Marlies are double shifting rookie players like Rasmus Sandin.

The 2018-2019 season was certainly unpredictable, especially in the sense of coaches being fired left, right, and centre— for way less than an elimination style game. So it shocks me that Mike Babcock, nearly a week out from the loss, is still fully employed with the Leafs organization.

Kyle Dubas is in a position to rework the young team with possibly a younger coach who is more apt to recognize the skill and potential in the bulk of the players on the team.

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