Per Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff:
Wayne Maxner replaced one Detroit Red Wings legend and inadvertently wound up playing a role in the arrival of another.
Maxner, who died Thursday at the age of 80, was Detroit coach from 1980-82. His hiring came on Nov. 25. Maxner was given promotion from Detroit’s AHL farm club at the time, the Adirondack Red Wings, where he was serving as head coach.
Maxner was replacing Red Wings legend Ted Lindsay as coach in Detroit. Immediately, he was announcing plans to reunite what had previously been the club’s top line of Dale McCourt between John Ogrodnick and Mike Foligno.
