Leafs’ Shanahan reveals how he reacted to the Babcock abuse allegations!

It was last month that the Toronto Maple Leafs fired head coach Mike Babcock, but the echo from the dismissal remains loud after abuse allegations were made against the bench boss during his time in Detroit. 

As you know by now, veteran Johan Franzen has joined the growing list of NHL players speaking out about head coach Mike Babcock.

“As a coach he is extremely accurate and prepared. He is great at putting together a gaming system and getting everyone to buy into it. That’s his strong side,” Franzen told Swedish newspaper Expressen. “But then he’s a terrible man, the worst person I’ve ever met. A bully who cheated on people, it could be cleaners in the Detroit arena or anyone. He jumped on people just because.”

Franzen answered to the story that first came out after Chris Chelios spoke of the abuse in an interview with the Spittin Chiclets podcast. Chelios said Babcock “blatantly verbally assaulted” Franzen during a playoff game, which led to Franzen suffering a “nervous breakdown.”

On Tuesday, Leafs president Brendan Shanahan finally commented on the allegations against his former head coach and revealed that he wasn’t aware of the incident Franzen spoke of recently in regards to Babcock.

Some fans are surprised by this reaction from the Leafs president, seeing that he has always been tightly linked to the Red Wings. 

Shanahan however did not dispute it, but says he wasn’t aware of any of that with regard to Babcock. 

Fans have been quick on social media to call Shanahan a liar and feeling that he was aware of his style as a coach before he hired him to take over in Toronto. 

If it can reassure fans for what is to come in Toronto and the rest of the NHL, Shanahan did admit that what the NHL introduced yesterday was very well received by governors in the room, per TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. 

Do you believe the Leafs’ president?