Red Wings Fire Derek Lalonde, loan Todd McLellan

The Red Wings have made a long-awaited change behind the bench. The team announced Thursday that former Kings head coach Todd McLellan has been signed to a multi-year deal to become the 29th bench boss in Detroit franchise history. Head coach Derek Lalonde and associate trainer Bob Boughner have been relieved of their duties.

Three straight defeats heading into the holiday break was the final nail in the coffin for Lalonde, who had been on the hot seat for over a month. Darren Dreger of TSN reported in late November that a three-game homestand in which they ended up going 1-1-1 was likely Lalonde’s last chance to finish the season. While he was given little grace to continue in his role beyond that, general manager Steve Yzerman‘s patience is now exhausted.

The Wings both expected and needed to take a step forward in 2024-25. They finished with a 41-32-9 record last season, just missing their first playoff berth since 2016 and also marking their first season over .500 since that year. But a terrible campaign offensively so far for the Red Wings, who are 29th in the league with 2.56 goals per game. game, has them with a 13-17-4 record heading into Christmas and eight points back of the Senators for the final wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference.

Yzerman hired both Lalonde and Boughner in the 2022 offseason after the Wings purged their former coaching staff, led by Jeff Blashill. It was Lalonde’s first crack at being an NHL head coach after winning two Stanley Cups as an assistant at Jon Cooper‘s staff with Lightning. Earlier in the decade, Lalonde had served as the head coach of the USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers, the ECHL’s Toledo Walleye and the AHL’s Iowa Wild.

The 52-year-old Lalonde’s tenure behind the Detroit bench ends with a record of 89-86-23 (.508 slugging percentage) in 198 games. Since the start of the 2022-23 season, the Red Wings’ record is 26th in the league, their 3.03 goals per game. match is in 19th place, and their 3.33 goals against per match ranks 27.

Unlike last season, keeping the puck out of their net has not been the Wings’ biggest problem. Thanks to the veteran Cam Talbot with All-Star numbers in his 17 starts, things are likely better than they otherwise would be under a Lalonde system that has been below average on both ends of the ice. Detroit isn’t close to controlling the majority of shot attempts (46.8%), scoring chances (46.7%) or high-danger chances (45.5%) at 5-on-5, nor were they last year or the year before.

It’s also not surprising to see Boughner leave. His responsibilities included overseeing the team’s penalty kill, which clicked at a near league-worst 68.8% rate this season. The 53-year-old previously served as head coach of the Panthers (2017-19) and Sharks (2019-22), accumulating a 147-147-45 record for an even .500 record and failing to reach the playoffs in either his five seasons behind the bench.

Enter McLellan and assistant Trent Yawneywho have worked together in McLellan’s previous head coaching stops in San Jose, Edmonton and Los Angeles. It’s also a return of sorts for the veteran McLellan, who served as an assistant on Mike Babcock‘s staff in Detroit from 2005 to 2008 and won a Stanley Cup.

Detroit is the 57-year-old McLellan’s fourth stop as an NHL head coach, and today’s news ensures he will suit up behind an NHL bench in some capacity for the 20th straight season. His last job with the Kings started in the 2019 offseason and ended last February, replaced midseason by Jim Hiller. In 1,144 regular season games as a head coach, McLellan has a record of 598-412-134 (.581) and has reached the playoffs nine times. In those nine postseason appearances, he has underperformed with a 42-46 record and has never advanced to a Stanley Cup Final.

McLellan and Yawney will now be tasked with cleaning up the Wings’ possession game and penalty kill, the former of which should ideally lead to an influx of offense as the season progresses. Unfortunately, it may be too little too late for a playoff spot this season. At the time of writing, Detroit has less than a one percent chance of ending their postseason drought, according to Judgment Luszczyszyn of The Athletic.

Image courtesy of USA Today Sports.