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Mike Babcock mulls future, as Flyers, other teams are left in limbo

Successful Red Wings coach says he's undecided about where he'll coach next season, leaving many NHL teams biding their time.

MIKE BABCOCK didn't hesitate.

Addressing reporters in Detroit yesterday for the first time since his Red Wings were eliminated by Braydon Coburn and Tampa Bay on Wednesday night in Game 7 of their first-round NHL playoff series, Babcock said he struggled on Thursday.

"The worst day I've had coaching in Detroit, period, in my 10 years here was [Thursday], bar none," Babcock said. "So was that because I thought in my heart we were going to win that series and that we should still be playing? Was that because of what's coming? I don't know the answer to that.

"I just know that there's a 24-hour rule in my house for sulking. And I used all 24 hours."

Babcock, 52, will become hockey's hottest free-agent commodity soon - bigger than any player available on the open market. The Flyers, Red Wings, Maple Leafs, Sabres, Oilers, Sharks and maybe even Blues would like to make him the highest-paid coach in NHL history. That feather in his cap likely will come wherever he coaches next season - and Red Wings GM Ken Holland said yesterday "money is no object."

Babcock sounded sincere, though, when he said he had not made up his mind yet about his future.

"Every time I speak right now, someone tries to read into what I said," Babcock said. "I wouldn't read anything into it, because there's nothing there. There's nothing, because I don't know myself. And if you think I'm trying to snow you or something, I'm not. I don't have any idea. I'm going to go through it in a logical manner and make some decisions."

When he tried to broach the subject with his wife, Maureen, at home on Thursday, the discussion went nowhere fast. The Babcocks have been in Detroit for a decade. It is home now, their kids have been raised there, he has captured a Stanley Cup there.

"Everyone thinks Ken Holland's the boss?" Babcock asked. "Actually, my wife's the boss, and that conversation didn't go very well. It didn't last long. It just got heated up pretty quick."

So many questions need to be answered - for Babcock and the rest of the interested parties. This saga has raged on for more than 12 months now, since Babcock didn't sign an extension last summer. If he was going to re-sign in Detroit, why hasn't he done so already?

Babcock threw some interesting barbs in his news conference, like saying "there's no better job" than Detroit, and "roots are important," and "the grass is always greener unless you fertilize and water at home."

Babcock has earned his pick of the litter. He said he does not want to become a GM, a personnel carrot that could be dangled by Maple Leafs president Brendan Shanahan.

He does not become a free agent officially until June 30, unless Detroit provides him permission to negotiate elsewhere beforehand. Compensation would be due to the Red Wings should he sign with another team.

The entire coaching world - from runner-up choices in almost 13 NHL cities, plus an entire crop of assistant coaches and staff members and corresponding personnel moves - await this one big domino to fall.

"I'm flattered. I really am," Babcock said. "But my wife and I will go through a process, and Kenny and I will go through a process, and within 10 days we'll have a plan. I'm not letting this go forever and ever."

Marti signed

Each of the last two springs, the Flyers plucked full-time NHL players - Michael Raffl and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare - from the European ranks. Ron Hextall is hoping the Flyers' latest signing can be the next one.

The Flyers signed free-agent defenseman Christian Marti to a two-year, entry-level deal yesterday. Marti, 22, spent three of the last four seasons playing in the Swiss National League, but likely popped up on the Flyers' radar during his 2012-13 season with Blainville-Boisbriand in the Quebec Major Junior League.

Marti missed a significant chunk of this season with a shoulder injury, but finished with eight points in 32 games for Geneve Servette. His team in Geneva was loaded with six former NHL players, including Paul Ranger, Tom and Taylor Pyatt, Matthew Lombardi and Matt D'Agostini.

With Michael Del Zotto still pending as a restricted free agent, giving the Flyers eight possible defensemen on one-way contracts in September, Marti likely does not figure into the Flyers' NHL plans for this upcoming season.

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