from Luke Fox of Sportsnet,

A quick mix of the things we gleaned from the week of hockey, serious and less so, and rolling four lines deep. Sheldon Keefe gave us the freedom to let our skill take over this week’s column.

1. My gut response regarding the future of Mike Babcock was something along the lines of: “Oh, he’ll be back in the NHL in no time. Coaching is in his blood. Regardless of if he lost the Maple Leafs room after four years, some GMs won’t be able to resist all those rings and medallions.”

Digging a little deeper, Babcock’s whopper of a contract — his record-setting $5.875 million annual salary is guaranteed through June 30, 2023 — stands as quite the roadblock.

The NHL’s priciest bench buyout is getting paid more to not coach than anyone in the NHL is getting paid to coach (Florida’s Joel Quenneville is the runner-up at $5.25 million).

We’re not quite into Roberto “My Contract Sucks” Luongo territory here, but escaping the outstanding debt owed to Babcock will be tricky business for MLSE.

I rang up Neil Glasberg of PBI Sports & Entertainment. He’s a professional negotiator and personal-brand manager who represents 40-plus coaches (but not Babcock) at the NHL and AHL levels.

Ten times he’s facilitated a coach’s contract swap from one GM to another, perhaps most memorably John Tortorella’s from Vancouver to Columbus.

NHL coach-employment agreements include a “right of offset,” a rule that forbids double-dipping of any sort.

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