LATEST | Mike Babcock already finds himself under fire in Columbus
We're just under a month until the start of the 2023-24 National Hockey League season and there is plenty of excitement surrounding mostly every franchise, including the Columbus Blue Jackets.
The Blue Jackets selected Adam Fantilli third overall at the draft and also hired Stanley Cup champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Mike Babcock to become their new head coach.
Babcock hasn't been in the National Hockey League since he was fired by the Toronto Maple Leafs in November 2019 and shortly after, found himself in some controversy after making forward Mitch Marner create a list to rank his teammates for their work effort. Just over a year later, Babcock said he made a major mistake for having Marner do that.
But as the season draws closer, Babcock has found himself under fire in Columbus despite not even being behind the bench for one game yet.
On a recent edition of the Spittin' Chiclets podcast, former NHLer and co-host Paul Bissonnette said that he got a text from from a player that said Babcock called Blue Jackets captain Boone Jenner after being hired and asked to look at the photos on his phone to see what type of person he is.
"I get a text from a player and he goes, have you heard what Babcock is up to again? And I'm like 'no'. So he gets to Columbus and one of the first things he does is he calls in Boone Jenner, the captain of the f***ing team and he says 'let me see the photos in your phone. I want to know the type of person you are.'"
Aaron Portzline of The Athletic is reporting that the Blue Jackets have been made aware of the allegations and are looking into the situation. Portzline reached out to both Mike Babcock and Boone Jenner for comment, but neither responded.
With training camps opening next week, it's going to be interesting to see what happens in this situation and IF the allegations are true, what sort of discipline Mike Babcock will face.
UPDATE:
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