Maybe he's trying to soften the blow in case the Toronto Maple Leafs don't get him.

But Cathal Kelly, a columnist for Toronto's Globe and Mail, asks why, exactly, is Mike Babcock the NHL's hottest coaching candidate this side of the Czech Republic?

Babcock officially still is coach of the Detroit Red Wings — his contract expires at the end of June — but they've given him permission to field other offers, and the lowly Leafs reportedly were first in line before he took off to attend the world championships.

Kelly writes: "We've all decided Mike Babcock is the best coach in hockey. Not 'one of' or 'arguably.' Just the best, full-stop. Why is that?

"His NHL record is impressive, though no more impressive than several others. He's taken about 63% of available regular-season points through his career — a little south of Anaheim's Bruce Boudreau and the off-season's 1A option, Todd McLellan. Babcock hasn't gotten the Red Wings through the second round of the playoffs in the past six seasons.

"He's won a single Stanley Cup — a mark matched or bettered by six other current coaches. He works for Ken Holland, the NHL's best spotter of undervalued and/or unrecognized talent. Wherever he ends up, it's going to be a lot harder to look just as good.

"It's a great résumé, but it doesn't scream Scotty Bowman 2.0."

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But much like Scotty, Babcock is perceived as a national hero in Canada. Kelly says it's because he coached Team Canada in the Olympics and, gosh, he sure looks and acts the part while doing it.

"Babcock's universally acknowledged professional superlative boils down to four weeks and two gold medals, in Vancouver and Sochi. There's nothing wrong with that. Considering there are no opportunities outside a Winter Games to stitch a team together, the job of Canada's Olympic hockey coach may be the most arbitrarily pressurized in all of international sport. All you can really do is throw the guys out on the ice and pray.

"Managing it once is impressive. Attempting it the second time is what separates calculated risk-takers from truly ambitious gamblers. ...

"Married to that golden shine is the way Babcock has about him. He just looks like an NHL head coach — scarred and square-jawed. Never underestimate what resembling the part has to do with filling the role.

"He talks like a melange of old-timey Canadian stereotypes. He might've been pulled from a logging camp after doing a correspondence PhD. He's homespun. He defers to his wife. He's prickly, but never cruel. He's as careful about showing up his employees as his employers. He's smart, but careful never to come off as too smart. For the most part, he doesn't say anything at all — which is the quickest way to convince people you're a genius."

Yet Babcock truly is a hot commodity, reportedly pursued by the Red Wings, the Maple Leafs, the Buffalo Sabres, the Edmonton Oilers, the Philadelphia Flyers and so on.

"It looks as if he's on top of the hockey world, holding everyone in the NHL by the tail," Kelly writes. "Instead, he understands that he may be as high as he'll ever go. And now he has to jump."

Contact Steve Schrader: sschrader@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter@schradz.