Sign emerges that Mike Babcock had it against Mitch Marner from the start!

The fact that there is no love story between Toronto Maple Leafs top forward Mitch Marner and former head coach Mike Babcock isn’t news. When reports came out two years ago of an incident involving Marner that made headlines, fans started to understand why it made sense that the bench boss had been fired. As you may recall, it was revealed that Babcock had a 19-year-old Mitch Marner to make a list of all the players on the team, singling out the players who he viewed had the worst work ethic. When the incident was made public, many denounced Babcock, condemning the former head coach for putting Marner through such an ordeal and even accused Babs of trying to put his players against one another. While it was said that Babcock knew it was a mistake and apologized right away to Marner, the incident should have never taken place.

Fast-forward to this week when Sportsnet’s Jeff Marek revealed that back in 2015, Babcock was pushing for the Maple Leafs to draft a defenseman instead of going with Mark Hunter’s pick of Mitch Marner. Hunter knew everything about the young forward and wanted him on the roster, but Babs didn’t want him. In the end, Hunter got his wish with then-GM Lou Lamoriello and selected Marner, but the story, once again including Marner, has many fans believe that Babcock never liked it and that the forward might have had already a strike against him when he joined the Leafs.

Marner was selected fourth overall by Toronto, and then defensemen Noah Hanafin went fifth to the Carolina Hurricanes and Ivan Provorov to the Philadelphia Flyers in seventh. And fans are definitely glad the decision was made to select Marner and he is still there and Babcock is trying to convince the Columbus Blue Jackets to hire him as their new head coach.

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