Red Wings McLellan Remembers Humble Coaching Beginnings

Early on in the 2025-26 season, Detroit Red Wings coach Todd McLellan will work his 1200th game as an NHL bench boss. He’s already surpassed 600 wins in the league.

While today ranking among the most respected coaches in the game, it wasn’t always that way for the 57-year-old McLellan. He’s been a Stanley Cup champion with the Red Wings and a world champion with Canada.

He was recently reminiscing about how he got his start behind a bench and how wet behind the ears he was at the time.

One of the most impressive aspects of Todd McLellan is his honesty. And that includes his Chris Osgood memories! 😂 Back in Detroit, the Wings head coach is a very special guest on this week’s Ozzy and Keats podcast, available first thing Weds morning! ⁦@DetroitRedWings⁩ pic.twitter.com/K5uQpyKhcN

— John Keating (@JohnKeatingTV) June 10, 2025

Winding down his playing career with Dutch club Utrecht, McLellan helped fill in after the team was dropping its coach. Returning home, he would be making the decsion that this would be a role he’d like to pursue.

“I developed a really great relationship with coaching,” McLellan explained to Coach Magazine. “I’d started thinking and talking about practices, combinations, building offenses, scouting – I did all that myself.

“I had actually watched this as a player and I was interested. I had the most important thing in me, the passion, both for the game and for coaching.”

Wanting to coach was one thing. Finding a coaching job was an entirely different matter. Lacking experience, McLellan knew in the coaching market he’d be a beggar, not a chooser.

McLellan Turns To Want Ads

“I was looking for a coaching position in North America,” he said. “I wasn’t afraid and answered the ads. Well, it turned out to be a junior league in Saskatchewan (the North Battleford North Stars of the SJHL). They were looking for a coach. I applied, I added a resume.

“I became a coach without any experience and I really had no idea what I was doing. The only thing I could rely on or trust was my instincts, from my past playing career with teenagers and teammates. And from that moment on, I started my coaching career. I was 22 years old and I coached junior players who were two years younger than me.

“From the beginning, I had a huge amount of responsibilities in terms of the rules of the team, from curfew after 10 pm, solving social issues that occur on the team, and of course training and games. I had to accept it all equally.”

Red Wings Gave Him First NHL Chance

He’d move on the to the WHL Swift Current Broncos, and then in the AHL, where he’d win a Calder Cup title with the Houston Aeros. In 2005, the Red Wings came calling with McLellan’s first NHL opportunity. He was brought on board as an assistant coach on Mike Babcock’s staff.

“Then it went fast,” McLellan said. “A head coach for seven years with the San Jose Sharks, then four years with the Edmonton Oilers and five years with the Los Angeles Kings.”

Hired by the Red Wings last December, McLellan has now spent 32 years in the coaching ranks.

Red Wings' Coach Todd McLellan couldn't believe Patrick Kane was blocking shots at the #StadiumSeries 😂

Cc: @DetroitRedWings pic.twitter.com/TfOwHhNfRy

— NHL (@NHL) March 3, 2025

“During my journey, I hit almost every level of coaching,” McLellan said. “The only thing I didn’t coach was the NCAA. But thanks to my son who played there, I know how it works there.”

His advice to those seeking to make it as a coach? Be aggressive in your approach and patient in your trajectory. And most of all, trust and believe in yourself.

“How do you get to the top?” he asked rhetorically. “Numbers on one side, but also my own opinion on the other. It’s just my experience, it’s not a right or wrong way, but I’ve been through it.

“I’ve been trying to move somewhere as a coach for 30 years. Honestly, there’s no easy answer. There’s no magic. You have to give everything some direction. You have to be aggressively patient.”