Mitch Marner turned out just fine for the Maple Leafs.
Nearly three years have passed since Marner was asked by Mike Babcock to take part in a bit of a different assignment.
Rank the players on the team, Babcock asked Marner, a rookie at the time, from hardest-working to least-hardest-working.
Marner did so. Babcock took the list and showed it to those players who were at the bottom.
The story was exclusively reported by the Toronto Sun on Monday. And while those players — Nazem Kadri and Tyler Bozak, we were told — weren’t happy about it, they were more upset with Babcock for making the first-year Leaf write such a list. Kadri apparently went so far as to tell Babcock it wasn’t something that he should have made a rookie do.
Babcock acknowledged to Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet on Monday that the story was true, that he was trying to “focus on work ethic and role models” with Marner and it “ended up not being a good idea,” and that he apologized at the time.
The cover of the Toronto Sun sports print edition for Tuesday, Nov. 26.
A source was succinct with us, saying Marner was “scared (bleep)less.” The incident took place during the fathers’ trip in 2016-17, which came in Washington and New Jersey in the first week of January.
Marner, recovering from a sprained ankle, told TSN on Monday that Babcock’s request “was surprising” at the time.
“I really kind of forgot about it until the report (in the Sun) came out,” Marner said. “It’s over with now, it’s done with. I was lucky the guys who were there with me, none of them took it to heart and they knew it was not up to me.”
A source said Babcock didn’t try something similar with Marner again in the years that followed.
Marner put the incident behind him — not that it was likely to have had an impact in the long run — and progressed to the level that he had 94 points in 82 games last season, leading to a large payday with the Leafs in the form of a six-year contract with an average annual value of $10.893-million US.
New Maple Leafs coach Sheldon Keefe (right) talks with an upbeat John Tavares during practice at the Ford Performance Centre on Monday. It was Keefe’s first practice as Leafs coach. CRAIG ROBERTSON/TORONTO SUN
While it’s not clear whether there were similar incidents with other players during Babcock’s 4-1/2-year tenure with the Leafs — which ended last Wednesday with his firing and the subsequent hiring of Sheldon Keefe — what’s clear in the days since the coaching change is the Leafs are a relieved bunch.
And one with a renewed sense of purpose. The Leafs won their first two games under Keefe, and neither victory was propelled simply by the rush of adrenalin that can occur with a coaching change. Though Toronto had to hold on to beat the Colorado Avalanche, the Leafs were more inspired in both games and were better than they had been during a six-game losing streak, a skid that led eventually to Babcock’s ousting.
On Monday at the Ford Performance Centre in his first practice in Toronto, Keefe had the Leafs on the pad usually used by the Toronto Marlies. Eight coaches, including several members of the team’s development staff, helped run drills.
“I come from a background where development is a priority and while performance, of course, is a priority, we believe that continuing to develop the players is important,” Keefe said as he took questions from a larger-than-usual group of reporters.
“I have had a lot of success with the Marlies in utilizing the resources we have around us in particular with the player development staff, they do a terrific job, they know what my expectations are in terms of working the skills within the structure and I just thought it was a great way to introduce some of the concepts we want our players to focus on offensively.”
For Keefe, getting the Leafs back to using their skills to be more innovative is crucial. With the way the players are eager to be guided by a new voice, we doubt that Keefe, not that he would anyway, will be asking any players, veteran or rookie, to list the roster from hardest-working to those with the worst work ethic.
“I think you can see it — the whole team is being a little more creative and we’re all jumping and jumping in on the back end and trying to get some things going,” defenceman Tyson Barrie said.
“The skill work (on Monday) was all relative to what we’re trying to accomplish within our structure. There was a lot of excitement out there again today. The boys were having fun.”
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November 26, 2019 at 07:17AM
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