As the story goes, Mike Babcock was frustrated with Mitch Marner for his perceived laziness in the first half of his rookie season. According to multiple sources, during the Father’s Weekend road trip in January of 2017, Babcock asked Marner to rank his teammates’ effort level that season in order of 1 through 20, ranging from the hardest working to the laziest.
Marner obliged, and, per multiple sources, put himself at the bottom of the list, with both parties agreeing that he needed to work harder without the puck. What Babcock didn’t tell Marner was that he was preparing to show this list to some of the players who Marner had ranked towards the bottom. Specifically, per multiple sources, Tyler Bozak and Nazem Kadri.
According to multiple sources, Marner was in tears after the details of his list were shared, while his teammates were furious — specifically with Babcock. They couldn’t believe their head coach would put a 19-year-old in that situation, especially considering how well-liked Marner was in the dressing room.
I’ve spoken to numerous connected sources over the past few hours to break down exactly how Babcock has done similar things to other players he’s coached in the past.
According to one source, a nearly identical situation happened during Babcock’s time in Detroit, involving a young Red Wings forward. The source explained that Babcock asked the player questions about his teammates that were similar to the ones he would ask Marner, and then promptly shared the answers with the rest of the team.
Was my favourite player as a youngin'. Almost beat the Rangers in '94
