Opinion: Can Mike Babcock Save the Toronto Maple Leafs?

That’s the question on the lips of the global hockey community now that we know the Stanley Cup-winning coach is leaving the security of his job in Detroit to try and become the first coach to deliver Lord Stanley to Toronto since 1967. He’d want to give it a pretty good shake, too, considering the Leafs are paying him a reported $50 million over eight years, with a get-out clause after five.

Make no mistake, there is an incredible amount on the line here, both for Toronto and for Babcock, but particularly for a coach who obviously believes that he can be the guy for the Leafs. Millions of fans clad in blue-and-white are doubtless hoping the same thing. He’s had success everywhere, first in Anaheim, getting the Ducks to the Stanley Cup Final, then in Detroit where he won a Stanley Cup, and with Team Canada at the Olympics, where he’s two for two: two tournaments, two gold medals. He’s a winner.

Maybe, Babcock is also an egotist. Is it egotism or just a supreme confidence in his abilities that makes the new Leafs coach think he is definitely the coach who can reverse Toronto’s fortunes? After all, many high-profile names have come into town – the centre of the hockey universe – and have known nothing but failure.

Toronto is as hard and unforgiving a city as there is in the game, perhaps superseded in that regard only by the Montreal Canadiens. Winning is expected in Toronto, and every year that the team goes without major success, the fan base, not to mention the press corps, gets more and more restless. Toronto’s is the longest current Stanley Cup drought. Maple Leafs fans feel every single one of those forty-eight years of silverware-free campaigns. Losers get drummed out of town.

One look at the current roster tells you that Babcock is in for the fight of his life. Has he bitten off more than he can chew? Time will tell, and Leafs fans, understandably buoyant today, must surely understand that this isn’t going to be an easy or quick process. The Leafs have basically bottomed out since losing a playoff series to Boston in 2013. Toronto had qualified for their first playoffs since 2004, and were up 3-1 in the series against their hated rivals from Massachusetts, eventually losing game seven in overtime.

From there, the Leafs have imploded. They’ve signed some guys to stupefyingly dumb contracts, traded others away – remember the Kessel for Tyler Seguin trade? – and continued to suffer thjrough inept front office leadership. It took Brendan Shanahan to come in as president to start righting the ship.

Aside from snaring Babcock, the former Stanley Cup winner (with Babcock in Detroit), has taken a cleaner through the joint, axing coach Randy Carlyle, General Manager Dave Nonis, interim head coach Peter Horachek and a bunch of other assistants and coaches.

There aren’t many great players left in Toronto. Probably only two genuine stars: Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf. Both players seemed on their way out of the Leafs organisation, but you wonder if Babcock won’t convince them to stay. He may also attract a few good free agent players who would otherwise have never even considered moving to Toronto, but there’s still a hell of a lot of work to do with the roster. It’s got more holes in it than Swiss cheese.

Babcock leaves a Detroit team who’ve made the playoffs year in, year out for the best part of two decades, and their roster has an admittedly-aging core of great players – Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Niklas Kronwall – and some promising youngsters coming through, as well. They also have a spectacularly successful general manager in Ken Holland, who’s helped make Detroit the blueprint North American franchise of the last twenty years. Look at what Steve Yzerman is doing in Tampa at the moment. He spent years learning from Holland.

It seems crazy that Babcock would leave all of that for an under performing franchise with no general manager and a sketchy roster. Yeah, the $50 million over eight years was probably a pretty nice incentive. He’s getting paid almost twice as much per season as any other coach in the NHL.

I suppose the chance to be known as the guy who brought the Maple Leafs back to prominence was another nice carrot that Shanahan dangled in front of the man he wanted on his bench. Winning Toronto’s first Cup since ‘67 would be the icing on Babcock’s cake. His reputation would be cemented – if it already isn’t – as arguably the greatest coach of the modern era.

The flip side, though, is what if it all goes up in flames? What if Babcock finds it all too hard. He’ll be pilloried by the press and fans, that’s for sure, but does it reflect badly on Babcock? This is the test. He’s proven he can have sustained success in Anaheim, Detroit and at Olympic level. The key things to note there are that he was had good players and solid front office leadership. There’s little doubt that Toronto’s roster is mostly devoid of good players, and whether Shanahan is the next coming of Yzerman or Holland or even Stan Bowman in Chicago. Remember, this is Shanahan’s first go.

Babcock thinks he can pull Toronto out of the morass. Honestly, if anyone’s capable it’s him, but I still have my doubts, given the dysfunctionality of the group he’s joining. Is he about to tarnish his legacy? Will Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment drive him crazy in the process? Time will tell. What a fascinating experiment this will be!