Mike Babcock responds to reports regarding his treatment of Mitch Marner.

Former Toronto Maple Leafs head coach Mike Babcock has broken his silence.

To suggest that Babcock's reputation has taken a hit over the last week or so would probably be the biggest understatement of the year so far. The former Maple Leafs bench boss has been raked over the coals by former players and members of the media alike since being fired by the Maple Leafs organization and there has been almost no one coming forward to speak in defense of the head coach. The one exception may have been one of Babcock's former players, former Toronto Maple Leafs center Nazem Kadri who of course now plays for the Colorado Avalanche. Kadri was asked about his former coach prior to facing his former team over the weekend and Kadri actually spoke highly of the work Babcock did behind the Leafs bench. 

Of course the story making the rounds now is one involving Toronto Maple Leafs star forward Mitch Marner, and it focuses on what many consider to be rather shocking treatment of a high level player. The story was bad enough initially but this morning we heard reports that he brought a then 19 year old Mitch Marner to tears. This alone has turned a whole host of fans and pundits alike against Babcock and unsurprisingly the former head coach has now spoken out in an effort to defend himself against the barrage of criticism coming his way. To his credit Babcock does not deny the story, and in fact openly admits to what he did, however he says that it was not an attempt to be cruel to Marner but rather an experiment on role models gone bad. Furthermore Babcock claims that he apologized to Marner following the incident, this after he realized that it had been a mistep on his part.

"I was trying to focus on work ethic with Mitch — focusing on role models — ended up not being a good idea," said Babcock via text message as per Sportsnet's National Hockey League insider Elliotte Friedman. "I apologized at (the) time."

Although I certainly do not want to disparage Babcock any more than he has already been in the media as of late, I have to point out that in one story we published earlier today sources claim he did the exact same thing with young players when he was the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings. If it was merely an experiment on role models gone bad would he not have abolished the practice the first time around? That of course is a question that only Mike Babcock can answer.