It was a little over a year ago that Johan Franzen called former Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock a 'bully' and 'the worst person I have ever met.' Around the same time that Chris Chelios said Babcock once 'verbally assaulted' Franzen on Detroit's bench.
Babcock had just been fired by the Maple Leafs, and stories were spilling out about his questionable -- arguably abusive -- coaching methods. Now the Stanley Cup winner and gold medal winner is trying to put his image back together.
Related
In an interview with Christine Simpson of Sportsnet this week, Babcock said he reached out to Franzen to address his former player's comments, but Franzen "didn't get back to me."
"I thought we had a really good relationship," said Babcock, who coached Franzen for 10 years in Detroit. "Now, did things not go as good at times? Absolutely. Did I ever, in my mind, try to bully anybody? That is the craziest thing I ever heard of.
"I also, though, didn’t even know what mental health was. Anytime someone, whether they work for you, whether you’re in a relationship with them, feels that (way), you’re wrong. You never want to cross the line and when you do, you want to own it and you should own it."
Franzen's experience with Babcock is especially ugly, but far from the only story of the coach attacking his players. Here's what former Red Wings defenseman Mike Commodore said in 2019:
"Everybody that I know that’s ran into Mike Babcock, that has had the misfortune of either playing for him or dealing with him or being at Joe Louis Arena with him back in the day, hates his guts. The guy is a piece of sh*t that treats people terribly."
To Babcock, the stories have gone a little too far. They paint him as a person he says he's not. "I’ve tried my very best to treat people right. I still do," he said. "You can’t have a family I have and the opportunities I’ve had without treating people good."
In particular, Babcock points to the fact that Steve Yzerman, during his stint as GM of Team Canada, hired him as Canada's head coach for the 2010 and 2014 Olympics. And Brendan Shanahan, during his stint as president of the Maple Leafs, hired him as Toronto's head coach.
"I’ve coached a lot of teams and had a lot of success and good people have hired me," Babcock said. "I didn’t have a Zoom meeting with (former Red Wings and Ducks GM) Bryan Murray before I went to Anaheim. I went to Detroit, (former Red Wings exec) Jimmy Nill was my GM at the ’04 World Championships, they hired me. Steve Yzerman played for me and worked with me for four years and he hired me for two Olympics. Brendan Shanahan hired me after he played for me. Some of this, the smell test doesn’t add up."
Babcock, 57, has served as a studio analyst for NBC Sports during NHL games this season and was recently hired as head coach of the University of Saskatchewan for the next two seasons.
Time will tell if he gets another shot in the NHL.