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Nazem Kadri spent a decade with the Toronto Maple Leafs, a large chunk of it during the tenure of controversial head coach Mike Babcock, and now, the Flames forward has a new book that gives his side of the most notorious moment of Babcock’s time in Toronto.

The incident in question happened during the 2016-17 season and involved Babcock asking then-rookie Mitch Marner to make a list of his teammates, ranked from best to worst.

Obviously, those are some serious mind games to be playing with a rookie, and it put Marner — who confirmed that this all happened after Babcock was let go in 2019 — in a tough spot.

According to Sportsnet, Kadri wrote in his upcoming book Dreamer: My Life On The Edge, that he and teammate Tyler Bozak “stormed into Babcock’s office and laid into him.”

Former Maple Leafs Head coach Mike Babcock is alleged to have made then-rookie Mitch Marner (No. 16) put together a list of teammates ranked by their work ethic . (Photo by Bill Wippert/NHLI via Getty Images)

“(Babcock) tried to defend what he’d done, to explain the thought process behind the exercise,” Kadri wrote. “There wasn’t much he could say, and in the end I think he realized he’s made a mistake. After that he apologized to Mitch. We’d pretty much made him.

“You just don’t do that to a rookie.”

Babcock was eventually let go while the Leafs dealt Kadri to the Colorado Avalanche in 2019. He went on to win a Stanley Cup with the Avs in 2022 before signing with the Flames that summer.

However, despite that moment with Marner, Kadri wrote that he grew as a player under Babcock and that Kadri, the two had a “pretty, good relationship and I think he realized early on that I wasn’t a player he could bully”, and also that Babcock made him a better player.

Babcock hasn’t coached in the NHL since being fired by the Leafs. He attempted to return to coaching with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2023 but was fired before the season after it was revealed that he had asked to see players’ phones and private pictures while getting to know them.