Red Wings fire head coach Derek Lalonde, hire Todd McLellan

Ted Kulfan, The Detroit News on Dec 26, 2024

Published in Hockey

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DETROIT — In the end, the amount and way the Red Wings were losing lately was simply too much to ignore.

And with that, the Wings fired coach Derek Lalonde and replaced him with Todd McLellan on Thursday.

In a release just after noon, the Wings announced that Steve Yzerman, the Wings' executive vice-president and general manager, named McLellan the team's 29th head coach in franchise history and signed McLellan to a multi-year contract.

The Wings also hired Trent Yawney as an assistant coach, replacing Bob Boughner, who oversaw the defense and penalty-kill.

McLellan will be behind the bench Friday, as the Wings return from the three-day NHL holiday break to host Toronto (7 p.m., FSN/97.1). Yzerman and McLellan will address the media on Friday.

The Wings have struggled to a 13-17-4 record, good for 30 points, just two points above Buffalo for last place in the Eastern Conference. They trail Ottawa by eight points (38-30) for the final of two Eastern Conference wild-card positions.

After just missing the playoffs last spring on the final night of the season on a tiebreaker, the Wings struggled from the start this season. They lost three of their first four games and have struggled mightily to get to, or above, the .500 mark ever since.

The Wings have lost their last three games, and the way they did likely pushed Yzerman to replace Lalonde.

The Wings let a third-period lead slip away at Little Caesars on Dec. 20 to Montreal and lost, 4-3, then lost the next night in Montreal, 5-1, watching the Canadiens score the last five goals consecutively with not a ton of pushback.

Monday, the Wings were shut, 4-0, at LCA, looking listless, at times. The Wings were serenaded with a loud chorus of boos after each period, culminating with a lot of pent-up frustration at the end of the game.

Lalonde, 52, ended his Wings career with an 89-86-23 record. This was his first NHL head-coaching job, and he was in his third season guiding the Wings.

After last season's exciting finish and near-playoff miss, there was plenty of optimism heading into this Wings season. The team's overall defense needed to improve, and scoring was expected to be an issue because of the personnel losses the Wings had, but the roster appeared to be competitive.

But Lalonde wasn't able to appreciably fix any of the problem areas. The Wings rank 25th in goals-against (3.26), only slightly better than last season's final average (3.35). Scoring goals has been a larger-than-expected issue. With the departures of Jake Walman, Shayne Gostisbehere, David Perron, Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong, the Wings were hoping for internal improvement, but it hasn't happened.

They currently rank 29th, at 2.56 goals scored per game (the Wings were 13th last season, scoring 3.12 goals per game). Add to that, a dismal penalty kill that ranks 31st (68.8%), and it's made for a frustrating season.

In steps McLellan, 57, who was an assistant coach under Mike Babcock from 2005-08. Yzerman, incidentally, was the captain in his final playing season and first season for McLellan in Detroit under Babcock.

McLellan has 16 seasons of NHL head-coaching experience, posting a 598-412-134 regular-season record and a 42-46 postseason mark with the Los Angeles Kings (2019-24), Edmonton Oilers (2015-19) and San Jose Sharks (2008-15). His 598 regular-season wins are ranked 24th in NHL history and sixth-most among active coaches behind Paul Maurice (891), Lindy Ruff (876), Peter Laviolette (823), John Tortorella (757) and Peter DeBoer (632).

Teams coached by McLellan have reached the 50-win mark three times and the 100-point plateau six times. McLellan’s teams have also advanced to the Stanley Cup playoffs nine times, including six consecutive postseason appearances with the Sharks.

Known as an upbeat coach with strong communication skills, McLellan is regarded as an effective coach of young players dating back to a successful junior hockey coaching career.

McLellan, along with Yzerman, will be under increasing pressure to end a Wings' streak of not making the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons. Only Buffalo, at 13 seasons, has a longer current streak.