The Columbus Blue Jackets hired Mike Babcock as head coach July 1, 2023. Babcock, who led the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup in 2008, is the only coach to have won the Stanley Cup, Olympic gold (twice), the World Cup, the world hockey championship and the world junior championship. On Sunday, September 17, 2023, Babcock, under pressure from the Blue Jackets organization, the NHL, and the NHL Players’ Association over incidents in which he apparently went through photos on players’ phones during off-site meetings, resigned. Camp opened on Wednesday the 20th.
Mike Babcock couldn’t even make it to training camp. I got a text on Sunday from a friend in Boston as the news broke – “Buddy, I can’t believe this guy couldn’t even make it to camp!” And the jokes have also started, too, although perhaps jokes should not be made given the underlying implications. “So, we collect phones? Or, no?” A text on Monday from the same friend in Boston: “Only if we put pictures up on the TV!!”
Given how slowly the NHL usually is to act, the unraveling of the Mike Babcock regime in Columbus has been surprisingly swift. Barstool Sports employee Paul Bissonnette, a former NHL player, broke the story on the Spittin’ Chiclets podcast on September 12th that he had heard from multiple sources that Babcock was asking players for their phones, going through their pictures to see what they were up to, and then later putting photos onto a larger screen in his office using Apple AirPlay.[1] The same day, Babcock issued a statement in which he denied the allegations that he violated players’ privacy or demanded that players share photos with him. He reiterated to The Athletic that “(Bissonnette’s version) couldn’t be anything further from the truth. They sit in my office, their phone in their hand, and they scroll through.” Babcock’s stance was, and seemingly still is, that what he did was normal and it was in service of getting to know a new group of players. Blue Jackets captain, Boone Jenner, issued a statement through the club on September 12th as well, denying that his interaction with Babcock was either odd or inappropriate.[2] Jenner’s statement read: “While meeting with Babs, he asked me about my family and where I’m from, my upcoming wedding and hockey-related stuff. He then asked if I had pictures of my family and I was happy to share some with him. He showed me pictures of his family. I thought it was a great first meeting and good way for us to start to build a relationship. To have this blown out of proportion is truly disappointing.”[3]
The NHL Players’ Association, led by Marty Walsh and his assistant, former Blue Jackets defenceman Ron Hainsey, apparently deemed the allegations serious enough to warrant a fuller investigation – one wonders if the memory of the way the Blackhawks internally buried reports that video coach Brad Aldridge sexually assaulted player Kyle Beech played a role in the decision to talk to multiple sources instead of taking the word of the coach and captain at face value. Walsh and Hainsey met in Columbus with players to learn more on September 14th. The following day, Walsh and Hainsey met with the league office to report their findings.[4] Babcock’s interactions with players in Columbus were apparently deemed an inappropriate violation of privacy. On Sunday the 17th, five days after Bissonette reported on the phone incidents, Babcock resigned, saying he would be “too big of a distraction” if he stayed on the job.[5] He did not apologize.
It is perhaps the perfect scandal for the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association to move swiftly on – at the end of the day, no matter how uncomfortable some players were, no one is directly equating this with other instances of rumored abuse. In the most innocent interpretation, Babcock is tone deaf and his actions were genuine attempts to connect with players on a personal level. In the worst interpretation, Babcock wanted to look through the pictures on players’ phones to gather information on players to use against them and to possibly share with certain players to create an inner circle.[6] Those motivations are obviously disturbing in themselves, but no allegations have gone beyond that possible interpretation.
After Babcock was fired a month into the 2019-20 season by the Toronto Maple Leafs, reports came out that he had, among other things, called a then-rookie Mitch Marner into a private meeting and asked for a list of who Marner thought were the least conditioned players on the team.[7] Babcock then allegedly told some members of the team who was on the list and framed it as a list that Marner had volunteered to Babcock. There seems to be a pattern of verbal and emotional abuse that often includes creating divisions within teams and then exploiting those divisions to wield power over the group and individuals.
That is a tactic used in other abusive settings, but it appears to be used by Babcock solely towards the end of winning more games.
So, while it was a bad several days, Babcock is now out, assistant coach Pascual Vincent is in as head coach, and camp is underway. Will there be speculation about the wisdom of the management group in Columbus who brought in Babcock? Absolutely. But, this situation, because it was so contained, actually allows the NHL to avoid talking about behaviors that might have much more severe effects on players. And, in a way, it allows the NHL a win.
If Blue Jackets general manager Jarmo Kekalainen and President of Hockey Operations John Davidson can make this into a win, too, remains to be seen. Kekalainen is now apologizing to players, stating on Monday that he is sorry “for any inconvenience or awkward situation that this may have put them in.” He acknowledged the hiring calls the due diligence process that Columbus went through into question. Kekalainen stated, “It’s obviously fair to question our due diligence, but I can assure you that it was done thoroughly. At the end of the day, I believed Mike Babcock deserved another opportunity to coach. Obviously, that was a mistake, and that responsibility is mine.”[8]
Kekalainen’s “belief” in Babcock may be a key to understanding how coaches with questionable tactics, or worse, remain in the hockey circle. At the time of the hiring, Kekalainen, who has known Babcock for more than 30 years and has an extensive network of contacts in the game, discussed how he, like President of Hockey Operations John Davidson, had relied on trusted sources within the game to guide his decision to hire Babcock. Kekalainen said in July, “I have a big network . . . everybody says Mike’s a great coach, but more importantly they said he’s a really good person. That was basically unanimous from everybody I trust that I spoke with.”[9] John Davidson has known Babcock at least as long as Kekalainen has, and seemingly relied on trusted insiders such as former Blue Jackets head coach Ken Hitchcock to help guide his opinion on the wisdom of hiring Babcock. Hitchcock reportedly personally recommended Babcock to Davidson.[10] Both Kekalainen and Davidson relied on their personal connections to make an informed hiring decision. This can be sound practice, but it is easy to see, looking back, how personal connections and loyalties, especially combined with winning on-ice tactics, can lead to situations such as this.
Sports organizations at all levels are under pressure to better vet coaches – both because it is the right thing to do to ensure athlete safety and because it reduces liability for the organization and those involved in the hiring process. But how does that square with the subjective nature of sports? Who is responsible for the end of Mike Babcock in Columbus? Mike Babcock for one. But, also management. Looking back on what Babcock said at the July 1st press conference is interesting now. Hindsight is twenty-twenty, but if they knew him so well, why did Kekalainen and Davidson buy into the spin? Babcock said on July 1st, “What I do know is when you have 23 guys on your team, you need 23 different ways to approach them. You need a communication plan with each one, a development plan with each one, and a mental health plan with each one to have success.”[11] He is right perhaps, but taken in context of his reputation for creating environments where players are manipulated against each other, it certainly could take on another meaning.
[1] https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/we-made-a-mistake-columbus-blue-jackets-apologize-for-mike-babcock-hiring-1.2009128
[2] https://theathletic.com/4857182/2023/09/12/mike-babcock-phones-blue-jackets/
[3] Id.
[4] https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/we-made-a-mistake-columbus-blue-jackets-apologize-for-mike-babcock-hiring-1.2009128
[5] https://theathletic.com/4857182/2023/09/12/mike-babcock-phones-blue-jackets/
[6] https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/we-made-a-mistake-columbus-blue-jackets-apologize-for-mike-babcock-hiring-1.2009128
[7] https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/we-made-a-mistake-columbus-blue-jackets-apologize-for-mike-babcock-hiring-1.2009128
[8] https://www.tsn.ca/nhl/we-made-a-mistake-columbus-blue-jackets-apologize-for-mike-babcock-hiring-1.2009128
[9] https://theathletic.com/4658406/2023/07/01/babcock-blue-jackets-hiring/
[10] https://com/4658406/2023/07/01/babcock-blue-jackets-hiring/
[11] https://theathletic.com/4658406/2023/07/01/babcock-blue-jackets-hiring/
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