Gardiner was already an established top-4 defenseman by the time Babcock got to him. Rielly was already an established top-4 defenseman by the time Babcock got to him.
Dermott was an elite AHL #1D that Babcock managed to develop into.. the most sheltered 3rd pairing defenseman in the NHL, and it only took him 2 years to do it. Wow, what amazing progress!
Can you name some other defensemen that Babcock developed? I genuinely can't think of a single one that he didn't inherit as an established top-4 guy.
You can use that logic with virtually any NHL coach though. You can't blame Babcock for inheriting teams the way they were, he took a hardly great Anaheim team to the cup finals in his rookie season and in Detroit he took over a team that was in "win now" mode. On one team, he got more out of them than he should, and the other, he took over a veteran team ready to win and did. It's hardly rational to criticize him for the jobs he got hired for
Rielly and Gardiner were slotted as top 4 defensemen because of how mediocre the defense core was at the time. Both players had at least 2 seasons without Babcock as their coach, but when he joined the club both players immediately got career highs under his guidance as coach.
Gardiner
Before
11-12 , 7 goals, 23 assists for 30 points in 75 games
13-14 , 10 goals, 21 assists for 31 points in 82 games
14-15 , 4 goals, 20 assists for 24 points in 79 games
After
15-16 , 7 goals, 24 assists for 31 points in 79 games
16-17 , 9 goals, 34 assists for 43 points in 82 games
17-18 . 5 goals, 47 assists for 52 points in 82 games
18-19 , 3 goals, 27 assists for 30 points in 69 games
Rielly
Before
13-14 , 2 goals, 25 asists for 27 points in 73 games
14-15 , 8 goals , 21 assists for 29 points in 81 games
After
15-16 , 9 goals, 27 assists for 36 points in 82 games
16-17 , 6 goals , 21 assists for 27 points in 76 games
17-18 , 6 goals , 46 assists for 52 points in 76 games
18-19 , 20 goals, 52 assists for 72 points in 82 games
To give Babcock little or no credit for them taking big leaps with him as coach, is incredibly ignorant . They both saw sizable jumpsin their point totals under Babcock and they're not the only ones either. While not defensemen , guys like Kadri , JVR, Bozak , and even Komarov had their best seasons under Babcock.