Rozner: Big NHL free agent in town, and he's not wearing skates

When the Detroit Red Wings visit the UC on Wednesday night they'll be accompanied by a man who's certain to become one of the most pursued unrestricted free agents in NHL history.

If he hits the open market this summer, he'll undoubtedly set records for salary at his position.

And he only puts his skates on a couple times a week.

His name is Mike Babcock, and he's the best coach in hockey.

Teams are lining up in anticipation of the auction, some having fired their head coach already and some in the planning stages.

Scotty Bowman worked as a special consultant to the Red Wings after retiring as Wings head coach following his ninth and final Stanley Cup victory in 2002 and was there when Babcock was hired in July 2005, until July 2008 when Bowman came to Chicago to work for John McDonough after the Wings won the Cup under Babcock.

Bowman also wrote the forward for Babcock's 2012 book, “Leave No Doubt: A Credo for Chasing Your Dreams,” which was set against the backdrop of Team Canada's victory on home ice at the 2010 Olympics.

Though there's a strong Chicago connection, the Hawks already have a Hall of Fame coach in Joel Quenneville, who has two years remaining on his contract and owns two rings collected in the last five seasons.

Furthermore, Babcock is thought to be seeking more of a challenge and more authority in personnel decisions — a la Bill Belichick — and the Hawks already have a GM whom McDonough trusts and whose last name sounds a lot like “Bowman.”

Still, someone is going to get the man many NHL folks believe will set a new standard for coaching contracts in a league that has been slow to recognize monetarily the value of the men behind the benches.

Everyone will be watching, no one more than those who stand to benefit by bigger coaching salaries.

Also paying attention will be Belichick, the two men having become friends and — in many ways — birds of a feather, as Babcock constantly searches for an edge in the cap era, just as Scotty Bowman — a Babcock mentor — always dreamed up new concepts and formulas for defeating an opponent.

“Belichick for me, when I look from the outside in, obviously he's a master of the game and all that, but he's a master of personnel,” Babcock recently told Yahoo Sports. “He doesn't confuse the player and the person. He makes hard decisions.”

Asked if Belichick was ruthless, Babcock replied, “He's ruthless? Well, is it ruthless, or is it right?

“When you're making the wrong decision because of someone's feelings, it's compromising someone else's feelings, is it not?

“So when you challenge each and every day, you challenge your kids to go out and do things right, and then when you go to work and you won't make the hard decision, what good's about that?”

That does sound like something Belichick would say if he were to speak about such things publicly, but that is a glimpse we rarely get. The Patriots boss did speak the day after New England won the Super Bowl a couple of weeks ago — as did QB Tom Brady — and Babcock was watching and taking notes.

“When I listened to those guys talk,” Babcock told Yahoo, “all I thought to myself was, 'I hope the demand and the preparation for excellence here (in Detroit) is as good as it is there.'

“I liked to hear what they had to say about the process, about building a team, about putting your work in daily, about the effort, the grind every day. These are things that just resonate with me.”

He noted that Belichick spoke frequently of “the group getting better,” “keeping the great leaders on the team” and “changing their identity every year based on their personnel.”

This is entirely necessary in the NHL as well, where if you're not moving forward, getting great leadership from your stars and infusing the lineup with young players, you are most certainly falling behind.

These concepts are not as simple as they sound, and it requires the kind of player the Red Wings have consistently discovered as they seem to add quality personnel to the lineup with every retirement or injury.

Detroit is again a threat to win the Eastern Conference — and perhaps face their old rival from Chicago in the Stanley Cup Final — despite a rash of injuries and an influx of newcomers.

It is what Babcock does, season after season after season.

“I'm 51 years old. I'm young,” Babcock told sportsnet.ca this week. “I'd like to be the best in my generation. I don't think you could ever compare yourself to Scotty Bowman because it's a different era.

“You could keep teams together and you could have these runs. That's just not possible in the cap world, with parity. But I think you can still be good in your time.

“I like the game, I like the players. I like grinding it out. I like learning new things. I like the challenge of being able to do it year after year.

“There are a whole bunch of people who come in here and have success for one year, and then they go. Being able to do it year after year after year, that drives me.”

The question everyone in hockey is asking, as it applies to next fall, is where does it drive Mike Babcock next?

brozner@dailyherald.com

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