Red Wings fire Derek Lalonde after slow start, replace him with member of NHL’s coaching carousel

After narrowly missing out on the playoffs, the Detroit Red Wings hoped that the 2024-25 season was going to be the one that resulted in the team getting back to playing playoff hockey for the first time in nearly a decade.

They had a talented roster and added to it with guys like Vladimir Tarasenko, Cam Talbot, and Erik Gustafsson. This team didn't exactly have Stanley Cup aspirations, but they expected to, at the very least, be in the thick of the playoff hunt.

Well, at 13-17-4, the Red Wings are nowhere near the thick of the playoff race and are instead in the bottom five of the league in points percentage. There's still plenty of time, but with the hole they've dug themselves into, their season feels like it's on the brink.

With that in mind, the team has decided to fire head coach Derek Lalonde after spending parts of three seasons in that role. With the way things have gone, this comes as no surprise. He has been replaced by a name all NHL fans are familiar with, Todd McLellan, who inked a multi-year deal to replace Lalonde behind the bench.

Derek Lalonde takes fall for brutal Red Wings start and is replaced by familiar Todd McLellan

McLellan has spent parts of 16 seasons as a head coach in the NHL, while most recently spending parts of five seasons with the Los Angeles Kings. McLellan had a 164-130-44 record with Los Angeles and was 23-15-10 in the 2023-24 season before being fired.

The Red Wings went safe with this hire, bringing in a proven head coach after Lalonde, a first-time head coach, failed to get close to the most out of a talented roster. While it's hard to blame them for the strategy shift, McLellan, despite all of his experience, has just two Western Conference Finals appearances under his belt. In fact, the San Jose Sharks made it to the Stanley Cup Finals the year after replacing him.

While his inability to even make a Stanley Cup Finals appearance in all of those years is a bit worrisome, all Red Wings fans want after nearly a decade with no playoff appearances is a chance to even compete for a Stanley Cup. McLellan does have a good track record of getting his teams to the playoffs, which is an important step for this franchise to take.

It would've been nice to see somebody new get a shot as a head coach, but when considering Detroit's position, it's hard to fault them too much with this hire. He should, at the very least, be a considerable upgrade over what they had.