Over the last month and a half, behind a white hot John Gibson in net, the Detroit Red Wings have finally looked like they are starting to mature and are pushing for a playoff spot for what feels like the first time in a decade.
And they don’t just look like they might sneak in on the wild card slot just to get swept out of the first round.
The Red Wings are in first place in the Atlantic after thrashing the Montreal Canadiens in the Canadiens' home barn. They’re 14-4-2 since the beginning of December and they’re one of eight teams across the entire league to have two or more forwards on the team with 20+ goals so far this season.
While they’re fielding one of their youngest rosters in recent memory, the Red Wings are being led for the first time in a long while by people who have decades of experience in the NHL at their positions on every level.
Red Wings have sound leadership with Todd McLellan
Red Wings head coach Todd McLellan came in at the midpoint of last season to replace Derek Lalonde. It was Lalonde’s first time as the bench boss at the NHL level, and he had been hired to replace Jeff Blashill just two and a half years earlier.
Lalonde, a former assistant for the Tampa Bay Lightning, took over a Red Wings team that Blashill had captained since he was promoted from the Red Wings farm team, the AHL’s Grand Rapids Griffins in 2015. While Blashill found success with the Griffins, getting to three consecutive Calder Cup Playoffs for the first time in team history, he couldn’t replicate that success at the top level with the Red Wings
McLellan, meanwhile, came to the Red Wings in December of 2024 with more head coaching experience at the NHL level than those two combined. His first job as the top man in an organization came just over 17 years ago in 2008 with the San Jose Sharks. Since then McLellan also coached the Edmonton Oilers (2015-18) and the L.A. Kings (2019-24).
After their tenures ended with Detroit, the two coaches he succeeded had 9.5 years of experience behind the bench of an NHL team combined. In those years, the Red Wings got to the playoffs once, in 2015, and have finished outside of the dance every year since that first season under Blashill. That year was also Dylan Larkin’s rookie season.
The Red Wings’ captain has led the team through one of its darkest eras in team history, and seems to be the last gasp of former GM Ken Holland, with almost none of his other picks surviving to this current era. He’s the franchise’s longest tenured player currently in uniform, becoming captain in the 2020 season. He’s shouldered much of the burden of this team throughout his career, coming in as the old guard retired or was traded away.
Patrick Kane brings a wealth of knowledge to Wings
It’s another player, one who Red Wings fans used to love to hate, who has seemingly breathed new life into the team, shouldering some of the burden on Larkin’s shoulders. Patrick Kane was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2007, leading the former Red Wings division rival to three Stanley Cups during his tenure in Chicago,
Signed as a free agent just over three years ago, Kane brought with him not only 15 years of professional experience on ice, but an intense knowledge of the history of the game and a willingness to support a growing roster of young forwards.
“You don't have to win, lose, you just have to walk into the locker room and he has an impact. His presence, his ability and want and desire to talk about hockey and history," McLellan said.
In his time with the Red Wings, he’s now reached 500 career goals, becoming the sixth player to do so while wearing the winged wheel.
“He [Kane]’s an easy guy to coach. He makes it at that level of player with that many years and that type of resume. He could make it hard on people, whether it's line mates, coaches, organizations, and none of that ever appears so,” McLellan said.
Kane and McLellan, who spent much of their careers on opposite benches in the Western Conference, have brought a dearth of NHL experience and knowledge to an organization that’s finally growing into the roster assembled by Steve Yzerman.
It’s by far the best the Red Wings have looked at the midpoint in the season since perhaps even before the playoff drought began.
Perhaps that shouldn’t be a surprise.