NHL forward Nazem Kadri claimed in his new book that when he played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, he and a teammate confronted coach Mike Babcock for reportedly making one of the rookies cry.
The incident surrounds Maple Leafs player Mitch Marner during his rookie season with the Leafs in 2016-2017. According to Sportsnet, Kadri wrote in his new book, “Dreamer: My Life on the Edge,” that Babcock got Leafs trainers to rank players based on their effort in the gym.
Based on those rankings, Babcock apparently approached Marner about his alleged laziness on and off the ice. The coach then asked Marner to create his own list ranking each of his teammates’ effort levels. Marner apparently obliged, even putting his own name on the list.
Babcock then reportedly showed the list to both Kadri and teammate Tyler Bozak.
‘You just don’t do that to a rookie.’
According to HockeyFeed, and other outlets at the time, Marner cried over the incident.
“Marner was in tears after the details of his list were shared, while his teammates were furious,” the Athletic’s Ian Tulloch recalled.
Kadri, who played for Babcock for his entire coaching stint with the Leafs, said he and Bozak “stormed into Babcock’s office and laid into him.”
“He tried to defend what he’d done, to explain the thought process behind the exercise,” Kadri wrote.
The center then claimed he and Bozak forced the coach to apologize.
“There wasn’t much he could say, and in the end I think he realized he’s made a mistake. After that he apologized to Mitch. We’d pretty much made him.” He added, “You just don’t do that to a rookie.”
Babcock later denied many of the details in a 2021 interview, around a year after he left Toronto. While confirming that he was to blame for the incident, he called it “crazy” to suggest that he showed the list to other players as a psychological tactic.
Babcock specified that he met with Marner and told him to make a list but said that Bozak later accidentally saw it when he came into the coach’s office. Babcock then said he asked Marner if he wanted him to straighten out the incident in front of the team, which he admitted he shouldn’t have asked the young player about but said that rather he should have done it of his own accord.
Kadri, now with the Calgary Flames, saw it differently in his book:
“The whole point was to embarrass guys, and it made for some awkward conversations between the players and the training staff,” the 34-year-old wrote. “Once you break that trust, it’s hard to come back.”
Babcock went on to coach the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023 but left just two months into the role. That stint wasn’t without controversy.
During the “Spittin’ Chiclets” podcast, former NHLer Paul Bissonnette said that Babcock asked Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner if he could see the photos on Jenner’s cell phone. Babcock then allegedly displayed the photos on his office wall.
Player Johnny Gaudreau, however, recalled a similar meeting with Babcock but described it as simply sharing aspects of his life with the coach.
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