TSN insider suggests Babcock will get fired this season!

The Toronto Maple Leafs took a 7-3 drubbing from the Tampa Bay Lightning on home ice Thursday night, and although Auston Matthews was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons this summer, you cannot blame the guy here! 

Some will look at the Maple Leafs’ defense and even the consistency of starting goalie Frederik Andersen, however, TSN insider Darren Dreger was asked on Leafs Lunch about the pressure on head coach Mike Babcock this season. 

And it seems like Toronto fans’ patience is growing thin… 

“It’s early for that (putting all of the blame on Babcock), but I can see it happening at some point this season. This is too important a year for the Maple Leafs as an organization. They won’t dump Babcock and replace him with anyone other than Sheldon Keffe. 

“If at some point they feel they gotta do something to salvage this, then, they’re going to do it, I don’t have any doubt in my mind.

“If things don’t turn around and the Maple Leafs are stumbling and rumbling after 20 games, what choice do they have?”

This summer, the Leafs signed Sheldon Keefe to a two-year contract extension to remain the head coach of the AHL Toronto Marlies. Given his tenure within the Leafs organization and his close relationship with general manager Kyle Dubas, it is almost expected that Keefe will be the heir apparent to current Babcock.

Babcock’s eight-year, $50 million contract (at $6.25 million per year) doesn’t expire until the end of the 2022-23 season, but his seat might get too hot if the players don't answer to him and he has lost the dressing room. 

We will have to wait and see if Babcock becomes unemployed this season, but Dreger believes it could happen...