Detroit Red Wings Sign Jeff Blashill To Two-Year Extension
The Detroit Red Wings announced that they have signed head coach Jeff Blashill to a two-year extension to remain as head coach.
On April 2nd, the Detroit Red Wings announced that they have signed head coach Jeff Blashill to a two-year extension. The 45-year-old who has been in the Red Wings organization since the 2011-12 season seems to be pinned as the head coach to lead the team through the current rebuild.
In his fourth season as their head coach, Blashill has struggled to find success as he has had an overall record of 135-143-47. As for the 2018-19 season, he has led the Red Wings to a 31-38-10 record. In four seasons as the head coach with Detroit, he has only been able to lead the team to the playoffs once. This was during the 2015-16 season.
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Red Wings general manager and executive vice-president Ken Holland spoke on the extension. Here’s what he had to say, via NHL.com.
“Jeff has done a tremendous job developing our young talent as we continue to rebuild our organization. Our young players have made significant strides during his time as head coach and are playing important minutes in key situations.”
Before becoming the head coach of the Red Wings, Blashill was a successful coach for the Grand Rapids Griffins in the AHL. In the 2012-13 season, he led the team to win the Calder Cup Championship. For the 2013-14 season, Blashill was awarded the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL’s best head coach. Overall with the Griffins, he posted a 88-48-2-12 record.
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Outside of the NHL and AHL, Blashill has coached as a member of Team USA’s IIHF team four times. With Team USA, he has been fairly successful and has coached a lot of young talent. In 2018, Blashill coached Team USA to a bronze medal at the World Championships.
Overall, the two-year extension of Blashill is not very surprising and is not a bad move. Although his NHL record may say otherwise, he has been an effective head coach with the young players. This has shown through the past two weeks, as he has transitioned AHL players into NHL players that can compete.
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While many may place the blame on Blashill for the the team’s bad past couple of seasons, fingers must be pointed at Ken Holland. He can only control the players and talent he has been given, which have not been much. The veteran players have been un-reliable and underperforming, which makes it hard for Blashill to create a perfectly blended lineup of young players and veteran players on absurd long-term, one-way deals.