Detroit Red Wings Fire Head Coach Derek Lalonde and Announce New Replacement
The Detroit Red Wings have made the shocking announcement of the firing of Derek Lalonde, and they have announced Todd McLellan will be replacing him.
The Detroit Red Wings have fired head coach Derek Lalonde in their latest coaching change this season across the NHL.
GM Steve Yzerman announced on Boxing Day that head coach Derek Lalonde and associate coach Bob Boughner were relieved of their duties coming off a 13-17-4 start to the season.
The team simultaneously hired Todd McLellan as its 29th head coach, inking him to a multi-year contract. Assistant Trent Yawney is also joining the coaching staff.
The Wings are 15th in the Eastern Conference with 30 points, eight back of the Ottawa Senators for the last wild-card spot.
This was Lalonde's third year in Detroit as a head coach. Though Lalonde flashed signs of brilliance in his first two years there, that Detroit tenure included consecutive seasons missing the playoffs and one that saw them lose last year's tiebreaker.
The Red Wings haven't been to the playoffs since the 2016-17 season, a drought that now stands as the second-longest in the NHL behind the Buffalo Sabres' 13-year absence.
Detroit had entered this drought on the heels of an impressive 25-season playoff streak from 1991 to 2016.
Detroit was the first head coaching stop in the NHL for Lalonde, who began his coaching career in the NCAA before taking on dual roles of head coach and GM with the USHL's Green Bay Gamblers in 2011, leading the team to a Clark Cup championship his first season.
He later coached the ECHL's Toledo Walleye and the Iowa Wild, the AHL affiliate of the Minnesota Wild. In 2018 he joined the Tampa Bay Lightning as an assistant under Jon Cooper, a role that ultimately brought him to Detroit by Steve Yzerman in 2022.
In 198 games as an NHL head coach, Lalonde compiled an 89-86-23 record.
