Darren Dreger tweets that Mike Babcock will be the next coach of the Blue Jackets.

Babcock reportedly interviewed with the Rangers but neither side pursued it very far as Babcock reportedly didn’t want to coach in another high-pressure market.

Elliotte Friedman said on 32 Thoughts that “One of the reasons I don’t think he would have been a fit or wouldn’t have wanted a job like the Rangers is I think he wanted something that was a little bit more out of the spotlight.”

The Blue Jackets were also reportedly very interest in Peter Laviolette.

Adam Rotter: At another point in time, basically prior to his firing in Toronto and the stories that came out about how he treated certain players, Babcock always seemed like he would eventually end up behind the Rangers bench. He was a big name, won the Cup, won Gold Medals and it was just easy to see him, especially under Glen Sather’s Rangers, as the coach.

But that time has passed and I think both sides saw that. It makes sense for him to want a smaller market after all the scrutiny and pressure he faced in Toronto and Columbus seems like they wanted another version of John Tortorella after they parted ways a couple of years ago. Babcock certainly fit with his experience and dealing with star players, especially coaching Team Canada, so it would have been interesting to see how it would have worked with this group, but he wanted something different.