What can lead dog Babcock do if a star forward(s) refuses to participate in a new type of break out scheme? What can Babcock do if his team collectively refuses to salute its unmistakably partisan home crowd as some sort of misguided protest? What if some of Babcock's players continue worry more about social media than preparation for their next game? What if any of his star players take 5 seconds to skate back to the bench with his head down, while the puck is already up for contention in the defensive zone? What happens when Babcock asks his players to come to an optional skate to work on some details and few of them show up?
Answer: nothing. Babcock can't teach professionalism to players who aren't prepared to behave like professionals.
Babcock could dock the ice time, cut PP time, benching, press box, team could suspend the player. If you do not get the response you want out of the player at any of those stages of discipline you can trade him for what you consider to be fair value. The Jets were not happy with Kane's professionalism so they decided to make an organizational stance and trade him. The Leafs up to this point have not had the back bone to do this.
First and for most you have to have a coach/GM with enough back bone and Ownership backing to make those bold moves.
Carlyle did not have enough backing to cut Kessel's ice time let alone bench him or press box him. If Carlyle did that, there would be a very high probability Carlyle would of been fired shortly afterwards imo. Horechuk didn't do it as he was coaching for the tank. Though he did do with with Lupul but by this time the season was lost the locker room was lost and everything was done.
Babcock has the backing of ownership and can handle his players as he sees fit.
