Detroit Red Wings: Roundtable Discussion of Jeff Blashill

Joseph Wooley;

Now in his fourth year with the Detroit Red Wings, Jeff Blashill is the longest-tenured head coach in the city of Detroit. By contrast, the coaches of the other three major teams have a combined one full season and two partial ones. With a historically poor start to the season, his time at the helm might be about finished.
Jeff Blashill did as well as could have been expected in his time with the Detroit Red Wings in what was truly not an enviable position. He inherited a team with a pedigree of making the playoffs, but the evidence of a downward trend was already present when he took over. Despite making the playoffs, the team lost in the first round the final two years with Mike Babcock.

During his career with the Red Wings, Blashill has had to work with an increasingly aging roster while attempting to integrate young players. At this, he has been successful. While there have been frustrations with bringing in veterans in favor of youth, the blame cannot be put solely on Blashill. This dedication to young players was, in part, how he landed the head coach role in the first place. He had shown success in the Red Wings organization, boasting winning seasons in Grand Rapids.

Although he had success in the AHL, it might be time for the Red Wings to move on from Blashill. To get a glimpse of what the organization may do, it may be helpful to look at the Detroit Tigers, incidentally also owned by the Ilitch family. In the past decade, the Tigers went from perennial playoff contenders to the bottom of the standings. To ease the Tigers through this process, (former catcher) Brad Ausmus took over the team, seeing a losing record over four seasons and one disappointing playoff series. Then, just as the team was getting younger and shedding bad contracts, Ausmus was dismissed. If this all sounds familiar, this is because the Red Wings are doing the exact same thing. What does this say about the future of the Wings?

When Ausmus was let go following the 2017 baseball season, he gave way to Ron Gardenhire, longstanding manager of the Minnesota Twins. There, he posted a modest record in twelve seasons, and his teams made several playoff runs with none coming to fruition. Look for the Red Wings to do something similar: find an experienced coach to bridge the gap between losing seasons and playoff contention. A coach who can mold young players into the future of the organization. In fact, before he was immediately picked up by Montreal, Claude Julien would have fit this part perfectly.

Instead, the most logical move is to promote current Red Wings assistant coach Dan Bylsma to the head role. Not only is he already in the system, but he also fits the aforementioned structure the Tigers followed. He has eight years of head coaching experience split between the Penguins and the Sabres. He had moderate success with both teams, even beating the Detroit Red Wings–unfortunately–in the 2009 Stanley Cup finals. Also, he has the added benefit of being familiar with the team. All in all, Bylsma makes sense to take over, should the Red Wings decide to go in that direction. With Blashill’s contract expiring this year, these answers may come sooner rather than later.