Red Wings hire former Sharks head coach McLellan after firing Lalonde

DETROIT — In the end, the amount and way the Red Wings were losing lately was simply too much to ignore.

And with that, the Wings fired coach Derek Lalonde and replaced him with on Thursday.

former San Jose Sharks head coach Todd McLellan

In a release just after noon, the Wings announced that Steve Yzerman, the Wings’ executive vice-president and general manager, named McLellan the team’s 29th head coach in franchise history and signed McLellan to a multi-year contract.

The Wings also hired Trent Yawney as an assistant coach, replacing Bob Boughner, another former Sharks head coach who oversaw the defense and penalty-kill.

McLellan will be behind the bench Friday, as the Wings return from the three-day NHL holiday break to host Toronto. Yzerman and McLellan will address the media on Friday.

McLellan is San Jose’s all-time winningest coach, compiling a 311-155-63 mark over seven full seasons from 2008-15. He won three Pacific Division titles and had a 30-32 record in the postseason, reaching the conference finals in 2010 and 2011.

McLellan’s Sharks teams finished with more than 100 points four times, winning the President’s Trophy in the 2008-09 season that also saw McLellan named a finalist for the Jack Adams Trophy as coach of the year.

The Wings have struggled to a 13-17-4 record, good for 30 points, just two points above Buffalo for last place in the Eastern Conference. They trail Ottawa by eight points (38-30) for the final of two Eastern Conference wild-card positions.

After just missing the playoffs last spring on the final night of the season on a tiebreaker, the Wings struggled from the start this season. They lost three of their first four games and have struggled mightily to get to, or above, the .500 mark ever since.

The Wings have lost their last three games, and the way they did likely pushed Yzerman to replace Lalonde.

The Wings let a third-period lead slip away at Little Caesars on Dec. 20 to Montreal and lost, 4-3, then lost the next night in Montreal, 5-1, watching the Canadiens score the last five goals consecutively with not a ton of pushback.

1
2
3
4
5
6

You May Also Like

More From Author