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Mike Babcock’s return to the NHL lasted 78 days, zero games and one iPhone photo scandal.
Babcock resigned as head coach of the Blue Jackets on Sunday afternoon, the team announced, ending a rehabilitation attempt that almost immediately went south for the former Stanley Cup-winning coach.
Pascal Vincent will take over as the team’s head coach.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was first to report the news.
Paul Bissonnette said on Tuesday’s “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast that Babcock, whose reputation was tarnished in his last job due to allegations of mental abuse of players, asked Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner to show him his cell phone’s camera roll, then displayed the photos on his office wall via AirPlay.
Babcock and Jenner both released statements through the Blue Jackets on Tuesday painting the photo requests as relationship-building, saying that Babcock asked to see images of Jenner’s family which he was “happy to share.”
Star winger Johnny Gaudreau gave a similar account of his first meeting with Babcock.
“We got to share things together, pictures of our family,” Gaudreau said, per ESPN. “I was a little upset to see the way it was handled and how it came out … but nothing you can do about it. We got off to a great start, had a great meeting with him and looking forward to working together.”
Despite the attempts to downplay the incidents, the NHL Players’ Association quickly started looking into it.
NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh and assistant executive director Ron Hainsey met with Blue Jackets players Thursday, per ESPN, to investigate the incident.
On Friday, the two of them and general counsel Don Zavelo met with NHL officials at the league office in Manhattan.
Whether Babcock was in the wrong or not, it is no surprise that he found himself under intense scrutiny in Columbus after the way things ended for him in Toronto, when the Maple Leafs fired him in 2019.
Babcock infamously requested a private meeting with then-rookie Mitch Marner, had Marner rank his teammates by work ethic, then shared the list with the players at the bottom of it.
Johan Franzen, who played for Babcock with the Red Wings, told the Swedish outlet Expressen that he suffered “verbal attacks” at the hands of his coach that caused him to dread coming to work.
Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said upon firing Babcock that his tactics were not “appropriate or acceptable” in today’s NHL.
After four years out of the NHL, including a stint coaching the University of Saskatchewan in 2021-22, the Blue Jackets hoped they could rehabilitate Babcock, who was set to coach one of the youngest rosters in the league in Columbus.
Instead, the move has dramatically backfired, with Babcock’s reputation instantly coming back to haunt him.
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