The Red Wings are in agreement on a two-year contract extension with head coach Jeff Blashill, reports Helene St. James of the Detroit Free Press. The deal is expected to be made official on Tuesday and financial terms are not yet known.
Blashill is in the final season of his current four-year deal since taking over for Mike Babcock. Detroit made the playoffs in his first year but they are set to miss for the third straight season since then. Overall, the team has compiled just a 134-143-47 record under his tutelage.
While that record isn’t particularly flattering, GM Ken Holland indicated earlier in the season that he was pleased with the development of their younger players. It’s hard not to argue with that as their four top scorers on the active roster are all 24 or younger while Dylan Larkin and Andreas Athanasiou have each reached the 30-goal plateau, a mark that no Red Wing had hit in the past decade. There has certainly been some progress made with their young core.
Still, it’s somewhat noteworthy that the length of this contract is only two seasons. That would seemingly imply that while Holland is content with the state of their current rebuilding process, expectations will soon be shifting towards having some more success in the standings. If that doesn’t come to fruition, the short term of the contract gives Detroit the flexibility to quickly shift to someone else behind the bench if the record under Blashill doesn’t improve.
2 seasons could also signal that Holland will be done soon and they want to give the next GM *cough* Stevie Y. *cough* options.
We can only hope