COLUMBUS -- Accepting the resignation of coach Mike Babcock on Sunday was an easy decision for the Columbus Blue Jackets hierarchy.
Getting to that point wasn’t.
President of hockey operations John Davidson and general manager Jarmo Kekalainen said Monday that hiring Babcock on July 1 was a mistake and explained why the coach was out after 11 weeks on the job with training camp set to begin Wednesday.
“I am very disappointed,” Davidson said. “We went through a process earlier this summer prior to hiring Mike Babcock as our head coach. But we got it wrong, and that’s on us.
“I can promise you we will learn from this moving forward. I also understand the criticism we are getting. It is deserved. All we can do now is learn from it and do everything we can to help our players and coaches get ready for the season.”
The decision came five days after the "Spittin' Chiclets" podcast reported that Babcock asked players to share personal photos on their private mobile devices with him.
Associate coach Pascal Vincent was named Babcock's replacement and signed a two-year contract through the 2024-25 season.
The Columbus ownership group said in a statement Monday, “We do not anticipate further changes to our hockey leadership team at this time. Additional disruptions would be detrimental to our players and coaches as they prepare for the opening of training camp in two days. We will continue to have regular communications with our hockey leadership and are looking forward to an exciting season.”
Babcock is 12th in NHL history with 700 wins and 16th with 1,301 games in 17 seasons for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim, Detroit Red Wings and Toronto Maple Leafs. He won the Stanley Cup with the Red Wings in 2008 and reached the Stanley Cup Final with the Mighty Ducks in 2003 and Red Wings in 2009. He also coached Canada to gold medals at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics and 2014 Sochi Olympics, and to victory at the World Cup of Hockey 2016.
Babcock had been out of the NHL since being fired by the Maple Leafs on Nov. 20, 2019. He worked as a volunteer adviser at the University of Vermont in 2020-21 and coached at the University of Saskatchewan in 2021-22.
Kekalainen said the Blue Jackets did a “thorough” vetting process before hiring Babcock and initially stood by him when the allegations of the photo-sharing came to light.
The NHL Players' Association investigated the matter and interviewed players.
Davidson was having dinner on Friday in Traverse City, Michigan, where the Blue Jackets were participating in the NHL Prospects Tournament, when NHL commissioner Gary Bettman called. Also on the call were members of the Commissioner’s staff and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh and his staff.
The NHLPA outlined its findings that some Blue Jackets players were uncomfortable with how Babcock had asked them to show personal photos from their devices.
Kekalainen said Babcock had asked him to do the same during his interview process.
“I had no problem with it, but I can understand that it can put somebody in an uncomfortable and awkward situation,” Kekalainen said.
After the phone call, Davidson contacted Kekalainen and Mike Priest of the ownership group.
“I don’t believe there were any ill intentions on Mike’s part in his interviews with players to get to know them,” Kekalainen said. “However, whether that was intent or not, some of our players weren’t comfortable with his methods and that was concerning. As we gathered information and had numerous discussions, both internally and externally, it became clear the distractions caused by this were too great and were having a negative impact on our players.
“As a result, we came to a conclusion with everybody involved in the process that the best course of action was for Mike to step down and Pascal would take over as the head coach.”
Davidson said he knew that the situation was untenable after he met Saturday with Babcock, who was in Traverse City.
“It wasn’t going to work with our players,” Davidson said. “It wasn’t going to work. So we had to move forward.
“What is fair to say is, he’s made players very uncomfortable. We just can’t continue with that happening. I do know there were things that happened that led to this point that we’re at right now.
“On a very personal note, this is one of the toughest times I’ve been a part of in my very long dealings in the NHL. It’s very troubling for me. We’ve learned a lot as a group to help us move forward, and I plan on moving forward.”
As for the organization being criticized for hiring Babcock, Davidson said, “Maybe they were right. It’s on us. It’s on me.
“Sometimes you just flat out make a mistake. We made a mistake.”
