Mike Babcock returns to the NHL because the coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets

Mike Babcock is again within the NHL as coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets, becoming a member of them Saturday after a stint of virtually 4 years out of a professional job.

The 2008 Stanley Cup winner returns following the top of his prolonged contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs, who fired Babcock early in his fifth season with them in 2019.

Columbus determined early final month to rent Babcock however needed to wait till July to make it official due to the numerous cash nonetheless owed to him on the $50 million, eight-year deal he signed with Toronto in 2015.

Babcock, who additionally made journeys to the Cup Final with Anaheim in 2003 and Detroit in 2009 and guided Canada to Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014, provides the Blue Jackets an completed veteran behind the bench to supervise their try to turn out to be a contender once more within the Eastern Conference.

Columbus has missed the playoffs every of the previous three seasons after making it 4 years in a row below now-Philadelphia coach John Tortorella. The Blue Jackets completed tied for the second-fewest factors within the league this previous season and chosen Adam Fantilli with the third choose within the draft.

They fired coach Brad Larsen in April after two seasons in that position, the second of which was derailed by accidents after Columbus signed high free agent Johnny Gaudreau final summer time and regarded poised to take a step ahead. General supervisor Jarmo Kekalainen is now relying on Babcock to try this.

Once thought-about the perfect hockey coach on the earth – and paid prefer it by the Leafs – Babcock noticed his popularity take a success when tales emerged about a few of his polarizing old-school strategies.

Longtime Detroit ahead Johan Franzen in 2019 known as Babcock the “worst person” he has ever met, and former teammate Chris Chelios mentioned Babcock berated Franzen in 2012 to the purpose of a nervous breakdown. Maple Leafs All-Star heart Mitch Marner mentioned throughout his rookie 12 months that Babcock made him rank his teammates from hardest- to least-hardest working and shared that with a few the teammates close to the underside.

When Babcock was fired in November 2019, retired defenseman Mike Commodore ripped into his onetime coach in a tirade on social media.

“Simply put your players quit on you,” Commodore tweeted. “They quit on you because you are a terrible human being. You are an average coach with an extremely oversized ego. You finally got exactly what you deserve … . The hockey world is ecstatic.”

Babcock hung out as senior adviser for the University of Vermont’s males’s hockey staff earlier than returning dwelling to his native Western Canadian present to educate the University of Saskatchewan in 2021-22.