Author: George Malik

The Free Press’s Helene St. James summarizes the tasks which new Red Wings coach Todd McLellan faces in her morning column:

The Wings chased a playoff spot all the way till Game 82 in [coach Derek] Lalonde’s second season, in 2023-24. But the team underwent numerous personnel changes headed into this season, including the departures, through free agency or trades, of defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Jake Walman, and forwards David Perron, Daniel Sprong and Robby Fabbri.

Newcomers in forward Vladimir Tarasenko and defenseman Erik Gustafsson have failed to overcome those losses and the Wings have struggled to show even a modicum of mediocrity. Entering the holiday break, the Wings ranked 29th in goals per game (2.56), 25th in goals against per game (3.26) and 31st on the penalty kill (68.8 percent).

Now it falls to McLellan, 57, to try to salvage things. He should benefit from his first game being against the Leafs, as the Original Six and Atlantic Division rival brought out the Wings’ best performance of the season when the teams met at Little Caesars Arena on Nov. 14.

But showing up now and then hasn’t been the Wings’ problem – if anything, it’s magnified issues. They have at times demonstrated just how competitive they can be, but then they’ve also performed so poorly, like in the 4-0 loss to the Blues that preceded the holiday break and led to fans booing the team on home ice.

After that performance, captain Dylan Larkin acknowledged the bleakness of it all, saying fans were, “rightfully so frustrated. We didn’t give them any reason to cheer and have a good night. We feel it. It’s just a disappointing effort and disappointing game for playing on home ice before a holiday.”

Continued

Detroit Hockey Now’s Bob Duff discusses new Red Wings assistant coach Trent Yawney this morning, noting the long relationship between the Red Wings’ new defensive coach and head coach Todd McLellan:

The two first met as teammates with the WHL Saskatoon Blades in 1983. Yawney a defenseman who was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks. McLellan a center who was a draftee of the New York Islanders.

“Yawns and I have a really good relationship from many years ago when we played junior together,” McLellan said. “If he wasn’t here, we’d still have this relationship.”

McLellan would never make the NHL grade as a player. Yawney spent 593 NHL games with the Blackhawks, St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames. He would also captain Canada at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games.

Yawney was also the first to get an NHL head coaching shot, with the Chicago Blackhawks in 2005. Three years later when McLellan, fresh off a Stanley Cup win as a Red Wings assistant coach, was offered the head coaching position with the San Jose Sharks, his first call was to Yawney. But it wasn’t merely a case of looking out for an old friend.

“I was more interested in his experience in Chicago as a young coach,” McLellan said. “He did some things right he’ll admit and he did some things wrong. I wanted to draw upon those experiences so that maybe I could evaluate what I was doing at times as a young coach.”

They spent three years working together in San Jose, one in Edmonton and five in Los Angeles.

“It’s been really productive that way,” McLellan said.

Continued

DetroitRedWings.com’s Daniella Bruce gave a 4-minute interview to the NHL Tonight regarding the Red Wings’ hiring of Todd McLellan and firing of Derek Lalonde. NHL.com doesn’t offer embed posts any more, but you can watch the video here.

Of Red Wings prospect-related note at the World Junior Championship:

Axel Sandin Pellikka was the star of the World Juniors on Thursday, scoring a hat trick and an assist for 4 points, taking 11 shots and finishing at +3 in 20:55 played as Sweden won 5-2 over Slovakia. Sandin Pellikka spoke with IIHF.com’s Andrew Podnieks after the win:

“We have a lot of good defencemen who like to play with the puck, so it’s fun that we got some goals from there,” said Sandin Pellikka. “We played a good game overall, so we’re happy. We played with patience. We kept our cool. We had a lot of chances and knew pucks were going to go in soon enough, and they did.”

Coach Magnus Havelid weighed in as well, per HockeyNews.se’s Mattias Persson…

“He is our captain and shows the way. I think we show very good energy right through. There was a joy of playing throughout the team, and even when we got into a disadvantage, it felt calm on the bench. Somewhere we had prepared for it. You have to have respect for the resistance – they have some really good players and both teams were rested,” said manager Magnus Hävelid.

Expressen’s Tim Dahlbeka noted this from ASP...

Of Red Wings prospect-related note in Europe today:

In the Finnish Liiga, Jesse Kiiskinen is absent, but you folks know that I’m a, “We’re going to follow the team anyway” person, so: HPK Hameenlinna lost 4-3 to IFK Helsinki in a shootout;

In the DEL, Kevin Bicker is injured and missing both DEL games and World Junior Championship games, but his Frankfurt Lowen won 5-4 in overtime over Iserlohn;

In the SHL, Noah Dower Nilsson got boosted to Frolunda HC’s 2nd line, took 2 shots in 10:54 played and Frolunda HC won 4-2 over Linkopings HC;

Anton Johansson’s team continues to struggle, but it’s not his fault. He scored a goal, finishing at +1 with 2 shots in 17:00 played as Leksands IF lost 4-2 to Timra IK;

And Skelleftea AIK is a bit of a “unit” even without Axel Sandin Pellikka, who is at the World Junior Championship for the next two weeks, but so SAIK won 4-2 over Orebro, with a certain Michael Brandsegg-Nygard finishing even with 1 shot and a minor penalty taken in 14:23 of ice time.

Steve Yzerman will address the media tomorrow at 10 am, Todd McLellan will speak after morning skate

— Sean Shapiro (@seanshapiro) December 27, 2024

The Hockey Writers’ Tony Wolak offers his assessment as to why the Red Wings fired Derek Lalonde and hired Todd McLellan as the team’s new head coach today:

Back in November, I suggested that the Red Wings consider a coaching change. McLellan was my top choice with this rationale:

“McLellan checks all the boxes – he’s a motivator, creates buy-in with structure, can adapt to personnel, and has loads of experience. In fact, he has coached most of Detroit’s front office. McLellan has also shown the ability to implement a sound defensive strategy and deploy various offensive approaches based on team composition.”

The Red Wings really do need a motivator. It was clear that Lalonde couldn’t push the right buttons to maximize Detroit’s talent. That’s something McLellan has shown the ability to do at his various coaching stops.

Drastic change won’t happen immediately. If anything, McLellan’s fresh perspective alone will help the team. They’ve been stuck in a rut for some time now waiting for the other shoe to drop. And now that change has taken place, they can loosen up a bit and get back to playing quality hockey.

Continued; good stuff from Tony as always…

The Detroit News’s John Niyo weighs in regarding the Red Wings’ firing of Derek Lalonde and hiring of Todd McLellan, suggesting that Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman bears some of the blame for the state of the Red Wings:

It’s Steve Yzerman who should be feeling the heat for as long as the Wings — and their fans — are left out in the cold. Because halfway through another lost season at Little Caesars Arena, with a franchise-record postseason drought likely extending to nine years this spring, the so-called “Yzerplan” remains stuck in a rut.

Go ahead and cheer Lalonde’s exit if you want. And cross your fingers that the arrival of McLellan will light a fire under an underachieving group that sits just two points above the cellar in the Eastern Conference. That’s certainly part of Yzerman’s calculation here. But just be honest about what this was and what it really means in the larger picture.

Firing a lame-duck head coach midway through the final year of his contract is hardly an inspiring signal from a general manager in his sixth season in charge. Neither is the fact that this pink slip comes as no surprise to anyone, really, even if it is the first time the Red Wings have made an in-season head coaching change since 1986, the year before Yzerman was awarded the captain’s “C” in Detroit.

…

Yzerman has preached patience since his return as GM in April 2019, promising only that he’d go about rebuilding a winner — and eventually a Cup contender — methodically. And even without any lottery luck, the Wings’ draft-and-development strategy is starting to show dividends: First-round picks Moritz Seider, Lucas Raymond and now Simon Edvinsson are blossoming in Detroit, while the prospect pipeline is promising more. (Defenseman Axel Sandin Pellikka, a 2023 first-rounder, scored a natural hat trick Thursday in Sweden’s opener at the World Junior Championship.) So for all the doom and gloom at the moment, there is still reason to be optimistic about the future.

But many of Yzerman’s other moves have left fans wanting, and wondering, while they wait. And whether it’s the odd trades (Jake Walman) or the free-agent flops (Justin Holl) or any of the other value judgments that seem to be weighing down a roster Lalonde couldn’t wring more out of this fall, the Wings’ GM certainly knows everyone’s patience is running thin here. He has to know he’ll need to make more changes beyond the bench here, too, as the NHL trade market heats up in the days and weeks ahead.

As the Wings’ GM put it last spring,  “We as a management group have to make some good decisions. And we’ll be sitting here next year and say that was a good decision, or we’ll be saying, ‘Steve, what were you thinking?’ You know, that’s the reality of it.”

Continued (paywall)

The Athletic’s Max Bultman posted a second column regarding the Red Wings’ firing of Derek Lalonde and hiring of Todd McLellan, suggesting that the coaching change cannot be the lone move that the franchise makes:

While swapping Lalonde for McLellan may well give Detroit a spark, as it often does with coaching changes, Yzerman will simultaneously have to look long and hard at his roster and perhaps make a change or two there once the NHL’s trade freeze lifts on Friday.

As close as the Red Wings got to the playoffs last season, that result now looks more like a mirage year than a building-block season. And while Detroit’s farm system still has a few important pieces working their way up the pipeline, glaring long-term questions remain.

The biggest are at forward. Detroit has long been building around top-line center Dylan Larkin, but increasingly, the crawling pace of the rebuild looks like it will mean Larkin, 28, will be into his 30s by the time the team is in serious contention. That’s not the end of the world — Yzerman didn’t win his first Stanley Cup until he was 32, and Larkin should still be a highly effective player for many more years — but it does mean the team will need a robust core of younger players around him.

Detroit has one such young star, Lucas Raymond, tracking toward a potential 80-point season this year at age 22, and another good scoring winger in Alex DeBrincat. From there, though, so much remains to be seen. Recent first-round picks Marco Kasper and Nate Danielson look like playoff-style two-way centermen who will really help the Red Wings, but both have some questions around what their ultimate NHL scoring productivity will be. The team’s 2024 first-round pick, Michael Brandsegg-Nygård, has a big-time shot in a heavy body, but he’s only 19 and has gotten off to a slower-than-hoped offensive start in the SHL.

All of Kasper, Danielson and Brandsegg-Nygård look like they will become good NHL players. But to get to where the Red Wings want to go, they’ll need more star power alongside Raymond and Larkin up front. They surely will have to continue to look for that through the draft, but as they’ve seen, that process will not be quick.

So while Detroit is making changes, is there a young forward it can trade for whose contributions can come sooner? Trevor Zegras in Anaheim or Dylan Cozens in Buffalo would fit the bill as young players who have already proven they can hit 60-point offense in the NHL, but have seen their production dip of late.

Continued (paywall)

Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli offers a quick take on the Red Wings’ firing of Derek Lalonde and hiring of Todd McLellan as the new head coach: