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Babcock happy to have all hands on deck

September 14, 2019, 7:50 PM ET [276 Comments]
Mike Augello
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While the news of Mitch Marner was greeted with a sigh of relief from most of the Toronto fan base and GM Kyle Dubas, the person with the biggest grin on his face in Newfoundland on Saturday was Leafs head coach Mike Babcock.

The signing of Marner to a six-year, $65.358 Million contract has Toronto’s forward core group of Auston Matthews, John Tavares, Marner and William Nylander locked up for five-to-six seasons and with Morgan Rielly(signed through 2022) and Frederik Andersen(locked up until 2021) two seasons, the focus of the club can shift from contract negotiations to winning playoff rounds.

“I’m just glad it is all over, I’m looking forward to giving him a big hug when I see him.” Babcock said. “To get (Marner) back in here, get him feeling good about himself, get his swagger back and we’ll be getting John (Tavares) back, that’ll be a two-for-one deal, and obviously we’ll be a better team with those guys and get Hyman healthy and we’ll be up and running.”



In a press conference in Newfoundland on Saturday, Dubas indicated that he and agent Darren Ferris kept the lines of communication throughout the process, but a face-to-face discussion between Marner and the Leafs GM after the start of training camp appeared to clear the way for a final resolution.

“We had a sit down on Thursday for quite awhile. It was great for Mitch to explain to me how he felt and for me to explain to him the reasons where we were at and what we were proposing.” Dubas said in St. Johns on Saturday. “It was a real positive in the process.”

The Leafs head coach’s plan with Zach Hyman out to start the season will be to move Kasperi Kapanen to the left side with Tavares and Marner, with Matthews lining up with Andreas Johnsson and Nylander. Once Hyman returns, Kapanen would likely be shifted down to a third line with Alex Kerfoot and Ilya Mikheyev.

Babcock said after two days of practices that he is impressed with big Russian winger Egor Korshkov, but believes that the Leafs 2016 second-rounder may be slowed down by his current struggles understanding English.

As has been the practice the last few seasons, the club is expected to make a large roster cutdown after the opening weekend of camp. Babcock indicated that they will reduce the roster size to 40-45 prior to the start of the exhibition schedule next Tuesday in St. Johns.



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