Washington Capitals should not hire Mike Babcock

The Washington Capitals should stay far away from Mike Babcock in their search for a new head coach.

After two straight seasons of exiting the Stanley Cup Playoffs in the first round, the Washington Capitals have parted ways with Todd Reirden. He didn’t wind up being the head coach they thought he would be back in 2018 when they decided to let him replace Barry Trotz.

Though letting go of Trotz was still the right move since they were reportedly a loss or two away from firing him a few months earlier, letting Reirden take over was clearly the wrong move. Reirden was significantly outcoached in 2019 by Rod Brind’Amour and in 2020 by Trotz himself.

The Capitals are likely going to move quickly on their search for a new head coach. Names such as Gerard Gallant and Peter Laviolette have already surfaced as potential candidates. One name has surfaced that shouldn’t even be considered – Mike Babcock.

Babcock was fired in November by the Toronto Maple Leafs after a disappoint start to the season. It was a long time coming, as many were surprised he was even kept after the Leafs lost to the Boston Bruins in the 2019 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Recently, he was hired as an unpaid assistant coach by the University of Vermont. If the Capitals are smart, they’ll stay far away from him for several reasons.

Babcock Isn’t A Good Coach

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Let’s not beat around the bush here. Babcock simply is not a good coach. He’s won one Stanley Cup in 2008. Babcock took the Red Wings to the Stanley Cup Final again in 2009. But since then, his teams have accomplished virtually nothing.

Since 2009, no teams coached by Babcock has even made it out of the second round. Babcock hasn’t even gotten out of the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2013. Maybe you don’t like the playoffs. Just in the regular season, his teams haven’t finished higher than third place in their division since 2011. That’s nearly a whole decade!

In my book, good coaches get the most out of their teams. They help their teams overachieve. Honestly, when’s the last time a Babcock team overachieved? You could maybe argue 2016-17, but keep in mind that team had no fewer than three Calder Trophy candidates. They were the eight seed in the Eastern Conference. It’s not like they outperformed expectations.

Babcock’s legacy is greatly overrated. He has won quite a few championships. But each of those were won when he had a stacked roster that was expected to win. Just look at the 2007-08 Red Wings roster. Three Hall of Famers. Another future Hall of Famer in Pavel Datsyuk. A potential Hall of Famer in Henrik Zetterberg.

Now, let’s look at what he did with Team Canada during the Olympics. He coached Team Canada to two gold medals in 2010 and 2014. I’m going to focus on 2014, though. Look at that roster. My goodness! I’ll list the potential future Hall of Famers on that team.

Roberto Luongo
Duncan Keith
Shea Weber
Drew Doughty
Patrick Marleau
Ryan Getzlaf
Jonathan Toews
John Tavares
Corey Perry
Martin St. Louis*
Alex Pietrangelo
Carey Price
Patrice Bergeron
P.K. Subban
Sidney Crosby

*Already is a Hall of Famer

light. Related Story. Predicting Each Team's Future Hall of Famers

I count eight slam dunk Hall of Famers (Luongo, Keith, Doughty, Marleau, Getzlaf, Toews, Crosby, Bergeron) and a bunch of guys who at least have a decent chance of being a Hall of Famer.

Babcock managed to make that team score less than three goals per game in the Winter Olympics. He had a comically deep team, and they failed to score that many goals. In fact, no Olympic gold medalist team has ever scored fewer goals than them.

How do you think that’s going to work with the Capitals? They have the best goal scorer of all-time in Alex Ovechkin. Is Babcock going to limit him? Considering Auston Matthews had his best season this season, that’s something the Capitals have to consider. If Babcock’s going to keep Ovechkin from doing the thing he does best (scoring goals), he’s a liability.

I’m fully convinced Mike Babcock is one of the most overrated coaches in NHL history. I’d love for someone to prove me wrong. But the facts are out there. He’s a glorified Dan Bylsma. Actually, that might be an insult to Bylsma because at least Bylsma found ways to win when Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin missed time due to injuries. Babcock has never won a darn thing when he didn’t have a loaded roster.

Babcock Is An Even Worse Person

We’ve established that Babcock isn’t nearly as good of a coach as everyone thinks he is. But as bad of a coach as he is, he’s an even worse human being. There have always been whispers about Babcock and how he’s treated players.

Recently, Johan Franzen, who played under Babcock with the Red Wings, talked about his experience playing under Babcock. Just as a warning, the link talks a lot about verbal abuse and bullying, so if that’s going to trigger you, upset you, or make you feel uncomfortable, please don’t click on it.

I’ll give a quick summary for those who don’t want to click on the link (and I completely understand if you don’t want to). Franzen suffered numerous concussions during his career. This led to him having PTSD, depression, and anxiety. Babcock verbally abused Franzen and made him feel awful. This is all you need to know about how he was treated – Franzen called Babcock “a terrible person, the worst person I’ve ever met”.

Now, this was nearly a decade ago, so let’s find some more recent examples. How about Mitch Marner?

Babcock allegedly asked Marner in January of 2017 to list his teammates from “hardest-working to those who, in the eyes of the rookies, didn’t have a strong work ethic,” wrote Koshan about the incident. Per Tulloch, Babcock was frustrated with Marner “for his perceived laziness in the first half of his rookie season.”Wanting to appease his boss, Marner did what he was told. He constructed his list and put himself at the bottom. He knew that he had to work harder without the puck.This is where the story should have ended, but Babcock wasn’t done with the rankings his future star put together for him. In what can only be perceived as an attempt to light a fire under a few of the team’s veterans, Babcock shared the list with some of the individuals that Marner placed just above himself.

Yikes. Babcock also has a massive ego and has taken advantage of certain players. Red Wings fans will never forgive him for keeping Mike Modano at 1,499 career games. He would have gotten to 1,500 games in Minnesota, the same state he got his NHL career started in. Instead, Babcock inexplicably made him a healthy scratch. He did a very similar thing to Jason Spezza at the start of this season.

Babcock Should Never Coach In The NHL Again

There’s no reason for the Washington Capitals to hire Mike Babcock. Or even consider him for their head coaching vacancy. There are plenty of better candidates out there. Candidates who don’t abuse their own players. Coaches who aren’t horrible, awful human beings.

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If there’s any justice in this world, Babcock will never coach in the NHL again. He’s abusive and that should be a good enough reason to ensure he never coaches in the league again. I’m hoping the Washington Capitals do their part to make sure he never coaches in the NHL again if they can help it.

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