The Red Wings from top to bottom identified, refined and deployed talent better than any other club. Mike Babcock didn’t find Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg, Tomas Tatar, Gustav Nyquist and Petr Mrazek. He deployed them.
Yes, Babcock fashioned the most devastating men’s Olympic hockey team ever for the gold medal run at the 2014 Games. But unless you count his second and final season in Anaheim, he has never had to work with a team this early in its gestation.
But the signing says five things.
One: The Leafs have reclaimed what for nearly ten years was a profound advantage: they had The Guy behind the bench.