Luke Fox: Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock on Monday:
“You’re supposed to build the best program you can so you have as much depth so you don’t miss people. If you have enough, you dn’t miss a beat and you just keep going. There’s other teams that have done a better job when different players are out than we have in keeping on going. That just tells you what state we’re at, and you just gotta keep adding better players.”
— Kyle Dubas (@kyledubas) March 18, 2019
Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet: Mike Babcock didn’t agree with GM Kyle Dubas on who should be the backup this season.
Kyle Dubas is the one who didn’t want to put defenseman Justin Holl on waives in case he lost him.
Babcock doesn’t really like having a small fourth line.
After the trade for left-handed Jake Muzzin, Babcock said:
“It’s not perfect — it’s what we got. It’s what was available and we’re going to make it work.”
Steve Simmons of the Toronto Sun: There has been talk that there is frustration between Mike Babcock and Kyle Dubas: “The relationship between coach and general manager, never as friendly as it appears from the outside, grows with mistrust and inconsistent results.”
There is a large gap in age, and have different styles and philosophies.
Babcock is not in love with his roster and doesn’t like that they don’t have a lot of depth.
Babcock didn’t appear to be fan of trading for Jake Muzzin and wasn’t sure how to use the defenseman. He didn’t want Garret Sparks as his backup this year, but Dubas wanted Sparks.
Emily Sadler of Sportsnet: Former Toronto Maple Leafs assistant GM Mark Hunter on Sportsnet 590 on the salary cap situation the Maple Leafs will face this offseason.
“It’s a stickler. I mean, it’s going to need really good stick-handling,” said Hunter. “They do have a good team, a good young team together, and I know we all want to keep that group together which… it’s going to be some real tough decisions they’re going to have to make, to make decisions on who they want to keep, who they don’t want to keep, because we all know it’s going to be hard to keep everybody.”