Former Toronto Maple Leafs forward Nazem Kadri’s book “Dreamer: My Life On The Edge” delves into coach Mike Babcock’s handling of players.
Kadri’s book scheduled for release Oct. 15 recounts Babcock telling Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner during his 2016-17 rookie season to make of list of teammates ranking their work ethic from best to worst.
Marner confirmed the incident in 2019 after the Maple Leafs fired Babcock.
Kadri, who played for Toronto for a decade, said in his book that he and teammate Tyler Bozak “stormed into Babcock’s office and laid into him.”
“He tried to defend what he’d done, to explain the thought process behind the exercise,” Kadri recalled in the book.
“There wasn’t much he could say, and in the end I think he realized he’s made a mistake. After that he apologized to Mitch. We’d pretty much made him.
“You just don’t do that to a rookie.”
Babcock, who coached Canada to Olympic men’s gold in 2010 and 2014 and the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup in 2008, was behind Toronto’s bench from 2015 until he was fired early in the 2019-20 season.
Kadri, now in his third season with the Calgary Flames, wrote that he and Babcock had a “pretty, good relationship and I think he realized early on that I wasn’t a player he could bully”, and also that Babcock made him a better player.
But he disagrees with some of Babcock’s tactics then. Kadri wrote that Babcock asked Toronto’s trainers to rank players based on their level of effort in the gym and talked about those assessments player by player in front of the entire team.
“The whole point was to embarrass guys, and it made for some awkward conversations between the players and the training staff,” Kadri wrote.
“Once you break that trust, it’s hard to come back.”
After his dismissal from the Maple Leafs, Babcock was hired as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023.
He resigned after two months on the job, and before the season began, after it came to light he’d asked to see players’ personal photos on their cellphones in order to get to know them better.
LISTEN | Nazem Kadri reflects on turning racism into fuel for confidence in the NHL:
The Sunday Magazine19:35‘I just refused to be stopped’: Nazem Kadri reflects on turning racism into fuel for confidence in the NHL
From his NHL start with the Toronto Maple Leafs, to his championship run with the Colorado Avalanche, to now playing centre for the Calgary Flames… Nazem Kadri’s identity, staunch confidence and scuffles have defined the hockey player on the ice for years. He joins Piya Chattopadhyay to discuss his memoir Dreamer: My Life On the Edge, which recounts his journey growing up as a hockey-loving kid in London, Ont., becoming the first Muslim player to win the Stanley Cup, and the challenges, controversies and racism he’s faced along the way.