Full Analysis: Red Wings Fire Lalonde; Hire Todd McLellan

Derek Lalonde being fired by the Detroit Red Wings isn’t surprising, but the timing certainly is. One day after Christmas, Lalonde is out as coach of the club. Associate coach Bob Boughner is also being let go.

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— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) December 26, 2024

In their place, the Red Wings are hiring Todd McLellan. He’s an experience NHL head coach who was also an assistant coach on Mike Babcock’s staff when the Red Wings won their most recent Stanley Cup in 2007-08.

It was abundantly clear in recent weeks that Lalonde’s message was growing stale. The Red Wings were listless on too many nights. They didn’t seem to have the right personnel to fit the defense-first system that he was preaching.

The final straw was a 4-0 home-ice loss to the St. Louis Blues on Dec. 23. That was Detroit’s third successive loss. The Wings were outscored 9-1 in Lalonde’s final two games in charge.

“Obviously, our last probably two-and-a-half games, we’re definitely searching,” Lalonde said after that loss. “A little fragile.”

The Wings went into the Christmas break second-last in the Eastern Conference with a 13-17-4 record. They are also a dismal 6-9-2 at Little Caesars Arena. Detroit’s minus-23 goal differential is the worst in the East and tied for second-worst in the NHL.

“We need the break,” Lalonde said after the St. Louis setback. “There’s times you need it, there’s times you really need it.”

Evidently, what Red Wings GM Steve Yzerman was deciding is that what the team truly needs is a change.

Red Wings Also Fire Boughner

Associate coach Bob Boughner was also dismissed with Lalonde. While the only other coach on the staff with NHL head coaching experience, Boughner was also the man in charge of Detroit’s pathetic penalty kill. At 68.8%, the Red Wings are are 31st among the 32 NHL teams in PK percentage.

McLellan Fits Yzerman Mold

In the past when discussing what he likes in his coaching hires, Yzerman has suggested that he tends to lean toward people he knows, because it brings with it an element of trust. Certainly, that is the case where McLellan is concerned.

Yzerman was a player and later a member of the Red Wings front office staff during McLellan’s tenure as a Detroit assistant coach from 2005-08.

McLellan owns an impressive .637 winning percentage (311-163-66) over 540 games as an NHL coach.

It was essential that Yzerman’s next coaching hire be someone with NHL head coaching experience. During the team’s eight-season (and counting) playoff absence, both coaches in charge of the team – Lalonde and Jeff Blashill – were newbies as NHL head coaches.

This is the 13th mid-season coaching change in franchise history, but the first since the 1985-86 season. That season, the team was replacing Harry Neale with Brad Park.

It’s worth noting that on 10 of the previous 12 occasions, the coaching change did not result in the Wings making a playoff appearance. And on the two occasions that it did – from Jimmy Skinner to Sid Abel in 1957-58 and from Bill Gadsby to Abel in 1969-70 – the club was occupying a playoff place at the time of the coaching change.