Decision on a second season as Huskies’ head coach yet to come
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Will he, or won’t he? Mike Babcock doesn’t know the answer to that yet. On Thursday the Huskies’ men’s hockey head coach headed off to the United States and will soon decide if he’s going to return to the U of S Huskies for the 2022-23 season. He has fulfilled his initial commitment of one year after being hired in February of 2021. A decision on his future won’t be his alone. “I’ll get together with the boss. That’s my wife.” Babcock said on Tuesday. “I’ll wait for a week or two, until she’s a little bit sick of me, then we’ll start thinking about what we are doing next.”
Babcock, who coached the Detroit Red Wings to a Stanley Cup championship in 2008 and led Canada to Olympic gold medals in 2010 and 2014, is going to take his time. “I’m in no hurry.” When asked if NHL teams have been in contact Babcock said “Since the season started, they have. Since the season ended, they haven’t.”
The Huskies finished in fourth place in the nine team Canada West standings (13-7) and were then eliminated in the first round of the playoffs by the Calgary Dinos in a best of three conference quarter-final. The season may be over, and Babcock may be out of the country, but he is continuing his work with the Huskies. “We are recruiting as much as we can. We want to have a much deeper roster. We’ve got to do a better job recruiting if we want to compete with the best teams in Canada West.”
Babcock’s son, Michael, who will finish his MBA this summer, served as an assistant coach this past season, and will be back with the team in 2022-23 as well. That’s something that may factor into Mike Babcock’s decision for next season. “We are at a stage of our life where we get to do what we want to do. Working with my son, being around family, being at the U of S.. we have a spectacular place here. Mike, and wife Maureen, also have two daughters that live in the United States.
