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Red Wings Head Coach Jeff Blashill Expected To Return For Next Season

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Tuesday: At his season-ending press conference, Holland confirmed that Blashill will be back for the 2018-19 season. The Detroit GM cited the improvement of their young players under Blashill as a positive. The Red Wings have decisions to make on some of those young players, as Anthony Mantha, Dylan Larkin, Andreas Athanasiou, Martin Frk and Tyler Bertuzzi are all restricted free agents.

Sunday: There has been plenty of speculation surrounding the status of Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill lately.  Detroit struggled considerably this season and wound up missing the playoffs by 25 points and as a result, some have wondered if a change may be coming.

Although an official announcement isn’t expected until Tuesday, both Gregg Krupa of the Detroit News and Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos (video link) report that Blashill will be sticking around for next season.  He was GM Ken Holland’s choice as the replacement for Mike Babcock when he left to join the Maple Leafs three years ago and Holland himself just landed a contract extension earlier in the week.

This means that Blashill will be behind the bench to start his fourth season as an NHL head coach in October but now, the focus will shift to whether or not he will get an extension or enter his ‘lame duck’ season.  CapFriendly’s coaches contract tracker has the 44-year-old entering the final year of his deal in 2018-19 and while most teams frown on having their coaches in that situation, we have seen it happen the last couple of years with Barry Trotz in Washington and Ken Hitchcock when he was with St. Louis.  Considering how Detroit fared in 2017-18, it would make some sense for Holland to at least consider that approach here.

Regardless of which way they go when it comes to another contract, it appears that the status quo will remain intact in Detroit heading into the 2018-19 season.

Snapshots: World Championships, Wild, Mariners

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Jeff Blashill will once again be the head coach of Team USA at the upcoming World Championships, with Dan Bylsma, Don Granato and Seth Appert joining him behind the bench. Blashill coached last year’s squad to a fifth-place finish, but he’ll be getting some star power this time around.

Patrick Kane has announced that he will suit up for the tournament, and he will serve as captain of Team USA. Alex DeBrincat will also be joining Kane for the US squad, a nice reward after an outstanding rookie season that saw him lead the Blackhawks with 28 goals.

  • The Minnesota Wild have recalled Carson Soucy, and expect him to be in the lineup for Game 1 of their Western Conference playoff series against the Winnipeg Jets. They might get another huge boost on the blue line though, as Jared Spurgeon was back on the ice today at practice. Spurgeon hasn’t yet been cleared to return to game action, but was paired with Soucy at practice and will attempt to get into the lineup for Wednesday’s match.
  • The New York Rangers have signed an affiliation with the Maine Mariners of the ECHL that will start in 2018-19. The Rangers had previously been affiliated with the Greenville Swamp Rabbits, but will now have both of their minor league partners—their AHL affiliate is the Hartford Wolf Pack—located in the northeast.

Black Monday: The Day The Coaches (Could) Disappear

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The NHL looks like it will finish an entire season without seeing a single coach fired for the first time since expansion in 1967, but there could be a dark lining on that stat coming next week. “Black Monday” as it is being termed could be coming after the final game of the regular season this Sunday, with close to a dozen coaches finding themselves on the hot seat.

In last night’s Insider Trading segment on TSN, Bob McKenzie broke down a list of potential firings that looked like this:

Glen Gulutzan, Calgary Flames
Bill Peters, Carolina Hurricanes
Joel Quenneville, Chicago Blackhawks
Jeff Blashill, Detroit Red Wings
Todd McLellan, Edmonton Oilers
Doug Weight, New York Islanders
Alain Vigneault, New York Rangers
Guy Boucher, Ottawa Senators
Barry Trotz, Washington Capitals

Some of these names simply don’t have a contract for next season, including Trotz, who also happens to be the only coach on the list heading to the playoffs. The Capitals have won the Metropolitan Division for the third year in a row, but will be judged entirely on their postseason performance. Washington must find some success past the second round, or there could be a shake up in order starting with the man behind the bench.

The rest of the list is a who’s who of disappointing seasons, with Quenneville sticking out like a sore thumb. Arguably one of the best coaches of all-time, Quenneville’s firing could cause what McKenzie terms a ripple effect throughout the league. Though he doesn’t expand on that idea, many have wondered whether another team would fire their incumbent to have the opportunity to hire Quenneville should he become a free agent, much like the Montreal Canadiens did last season when Claude Julien was let go from Boston.

In New York, while both coaches might not be back it would be for very different reasons. Vigneault has had a lot of regular season success with the Rangers, but as they enter into an unfamiliar rebuild they could want to start with a fresh face behind the bench. For Weight and the Islanders, this season was an abject failure as they tried to woo John Tavares with a trip to the postseason. They won’t get there, and now have to worry about whether their captain and superstar will stick around.

There could be many other names you could suggest for the list, and it is extremely unlikely that all of these will get the boot before the start of 2018-19. You can be sure some changes are coming though, even if it does come after a remarkable season of patience by general managers around the league.

Snapshots: Holland, Gretzky, Ehrhoff

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Ansar Khan of MLive reported today that Ken Holland will return as general manager for the Detroit Red Wings next season. Though no formal announcement has been made regarding Holland’s expiring contract, Khan seems convinced that he will be the one leading the Red Wings in 2018-19. He also suggests that Jeff Blashill could also return as head coach, despite a relatively disappointing season that has the Red Wings just five points out of last in the NHL.

Bringing Holland back would likely mean a new contract, and one that could take his name out of consideration for the job in a potential Seattle franchise. Though Holland has never indicated or even spoken about an interest in joining the expansion organization, there has been some chatter about his name as a leading candidate, especially one that the league would welcome. Detroit has some very interesting decisions to come this summer and down the road, as they try to navigate a rebuild for the first time in decades.

  • Wayne Gretzky will be a household name in China if he isn’t already, that’s what Darren Dreger of TSN makes it sound like on the latest iteration of Insider Trading. Dreger reports that Gretzky will soon sign a deal to put his branding on everything from arenas to equipment in China as the country encourages more and more children to take up the sport. Gretzky is obviously still one of the most well-known names in hockey worldwide, and could still have a huge impact in the growth of the sport.
  • Christian Ehrhoff has officially retired from professional hockey, but as John Vogl of the Buffalo News points out he’ll still be getting a paycheck from the Buffalo Sabres for some time. Ehrhoff, bought out in 2014 just three seasons into a ten-year contract, will remain on the Buffalo payroll through 2027-28. That’s another ten years from now, not bad for a player who only suited up 192 times for the Sabres over three seasons.

Poll: Which Coach Is Least Likely To Be Back Next Season?

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The NHL has gone almost the entire season without seeing a head coach fired, something that hasn’t happened in more than fifty years. Even with that said, it seems unlikely that all 31 head coaches will be back next season, either through expiration of their contract or termination by a frustrated GM.

Barry Trotz, for instance, is on the last year of his current contract and seems tied to the Washington Capitals playoff success this year. Though Washington GM Brian MacLellan was given a contract extension recently, there has been no word on Trotz, who has never advanced past the second round in his 19-year NHL coaching career.

There has been some talk of even the great Joel Quenneville being let go from Chicago, after the disappointing season the Blackhawks have suffered through. Quenneville is one of the greatest of all time, but even he might have to pay the price for underperforming stars and an aging core.

Who do you think is least likely to be brought back by their current team? Which coach won’t be wearing the same colors next season? Make sure to explain your vote in the comment section below.

[Mobile users click here to vote!]

Red Wings Notes: Trade Rumors, Athanasiou

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The Detroit Free Press’ Helene St. James writes that general manager Ken Holland is absolutely cognizant of the fact that the Red Wings are in “seller” mode. St. James quotes Holland as saying:

“I’m working the phones, I’m trying to see what the other teams in the league are thinking,” Holland said. “We are obviously not a buyer, we are not spending future assets to try to get in. We’ll see here over the next week what direction we are going, but I am aware we are eight points out and games are running out.”

The quote is nearly verbatim from last year, where Holland pulled the plug during early February and started dealing at the deadline.  Beating the Anaheim Ducks last night, in a game where the Ducks outplayed and outshot the Red Wings, isn’t anything to mistake as a game that get Detroit into a playoff spot. The issue remaining is whether or not Holland will truly begin rotating players out to stockpile as much young talent and higher draft picks that he can. Where the verbiage has changed is that on a roster that Holland usually gives the nod to a veteran, he seems to be ready to open up spots for younger players:

“I’ve talked to lots of teams over the last week and 10 days, and I’m doubling back with a number of them,” Holland said. “We’d like to get assets, open up spots for a kid or two for next season.”

Holland has been gun shy when it comes to making trades in the Cap era, and he’s still working without a contract extension. With Mike Green, Jimmy Howard, Petr Mrazek, Gustav Nyquist, and even Tomas Tatar in trade conversations, it will be interesting to see if Holland really will make the deals he seems to be hinting at.

  • Andreas Athanasiou is ready to make amends for his lackluster play that resulted in a third period benching reports the Detroit News’ Ted Kulfan. Punished for a lack of effort, Athanasiou played just one shift in yesterday’s 2-1 win during the third period. In spite of his athleticism, speed, and gamebreaker ability, Athanasiou has long been made an example by head coach Jeff Blashill when he hasn’t been at his best. Kulfan writes that consistency has been an issue for Athanasiou during his young career, but it’s an interesting take in that several players, especially higher priced ones, have been similarly inconsistent or turnover prone with the puck. Though he hasn’t scored in 11 games, Athanasiou still has more points than Darren Helm, and Justin Abdelkader, and is tied with Frans Nielsen, and Tomas Tatar, who have both played 10 more games than the 23-year-old forward. The combined cap hit for Abdelkader ($4.25MM), Nielsen ($5.25MM), Tatar ($5.3MM) and Helm ($3.85MM) is $18.65MM while Athanasiou makes a fraction of their individual salaries at $1.38MM. He’s also just a point behind Gustav Nyquist ($4.75MM), who also has ten more games to his name. Though it is fair to try and teach the young forward good habits, the larger issue in Detroit is once again giving large contracts to players who simply don’t produce the points to justify such payment.

Injury Updates: Devils, Senators, Red Wings

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The New Jersey Devils took some lumps during Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. The team lost goaltender Keith Kinkaid 14 minutes into the game to a groin injury. Kinkaid, who was already filling in for the ill Cory Schneider, had already given up three goals in the first period and was likely in danger of being pulled. However, the team was saved by emergency backup Ken Appleby, who played 46 minutes of shutout hockey in his NHL debut. Kinkaid was placed on injured reserve today, along with forward Brian Gibbons, who broke his thumb after blocking a shot in the same game, according to TSN’s Amanda Stein.

Gibbons has been a success story in New Jersey this year. After two partial seasons with Pittsburgh in 2013-14 and Columbus the following year, Gibbons had trouble finding an NHL job and played the past two years in the AHL, including a 16-goal season for the Albany Devils last year with no promotion. However, he made the Devils squad this year and has already played in a career-high 45 games so far with solid numbers of 12 goals and 11 assists.

As for the goaltending situation, Appleby is currently the only healthy goaltender on New Jersey’s roster. However, The Record’s Andrew Gross reports that Schneider, who has missed two of the last three games with a stomach illness, practiced today, suggesting he might be close to a return. The Devils play Monday against the Detroit Red Wings. There is no update on how much time either Kinkaid or Gibbons will miss.

  • CapFriendly reported that the Ottawa Senators placed center Jean-Gabriel Pageau on injured reserve last night with an upper-body injury and is expected to miss a few games. The Senators will likely rely on youngster Filip Chlapik to replace him. Despite being considered a likely trade candidate at the upcoming trade deadline, the 25-year-old center has been struggling to produce offensively as he has just six goals and nine assists in 42 games this year. His strength is as a face-off specialist, where he has a 53.1 percent success rate (282 face-offs won out of 531).
  • The Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill’s gave an update today on some injured players. Blashill said the team will be without defenseman Trevor Daley on Monday and Tuesday and is the veteran blueliner is questionable for Thursday. He suffered a lower-body injury in Saturday’s game against the Carolina Hurricanes. Forward Luke Glendening, who hasn’t played in a game since Dec. 20, is out for Monday’s game against New Jersey with a hand injury, but is a possibility for Tuesday’s game against the Philadelphia Flyers. Blashill added that wing Justin Abdelkader, who has already missed three games with a lower-body injury, is a possibility to return for Thursday’s game, while center Darren Helm (lower-body injury) will not be back before the All-Star break.

 

Red Wings Notes: The Process, Athanasiou, Mantha

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Count the Detroit News’ Gregg Krupa as one of the voices in the Detroit media calling it as he sees it. Through the ups and downs of what is considered an unacceptable season in Hockeytown, Krupa argues that “the process” of rebuilding on the fly is not working and a change is certainly due. What does that change look like? Playing the kids. Tyler Bertuzzi and Joe Hicketts, Krupa writes, should both be in Detroit getting minutes instead of, borrowing from general manager Ken Holland, “over-ripening.” Goaltender Petr Mrazek should be played and given chances to showcase his talent–which when confident–is immense. That same talent could be flipped for a draft pick or prospect. As for the “process” that head coach Jeff Blashill has extolled through the last few weeks of struggles, Krupa believes that such terminology is an affront to progress. The last 15 games are reason enough for the Red Wings to abandon any dim hopes of a playoff appearance, and instead, begin to plan for the future. But transactions through the last five seasons and coupled with comments this season seem to indicate the Red Wings front office believes in their plan.

  •  Andreas Athanasiou has struggled to replicate the success he saw last season, as the speedy forward is in the midst of an 11-game goal drought. Anthony Mantha also finds himself mired in a slump, having no points in six games while only having two goals and an assist in his last 13. MLive’s Ansar Khan writes that Blashill believes Athanasiou has actually played stronger while Mantha has struggled with turnovers. The 23-year-old Mantha likens his struggles to passing up shots and making things more complicated than they need to be. Athanasiou attributes his struggles to “bad bounces.” The one positive is that the supposed friction that existed between Blashill, and Athanasiou is apparently no more. Blashill complimented his young forward, saying he’s been “receptive” to coaching.

Atlantic Notes: Grzelcyk, Blashill, Karlsson

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With Boston defenseman Adam McQuaid nearing a return to the lineup, the Bruins will soon have a decision to make on their back end.  In order to make the roster and salary cap room to activate him off LTIR, the team will have to make a move.  On the surface, it would appear that blueliner Matt Grzelcyk, who is on recall from the minors, would be the logical one to go back down but Fluto Shinzawa of the Boston Globe argues that the 23-year-old has done enough to not only stay on the NHL roster but stay in the lineup when McQuaid gets the green light to suit up and suggests that going with seven rearguards may be the way to go for the time being.

Fortunately for the Bruins, they have several waiver-exempt forwards on the active roster which gives them some options to choose from but with McQuaid nearly ready to play, they’ll have to make a decision in the very near future.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic:

  • Although the Red Wings have come crashing down as of late, Ted Kulfan of the Detroit News believes it’s unlikely that a midseason coaching change is on the horizon. Instead, he expects the team to wait until after the season and make a decision on Jeff Blashill’s fate at that time as well as GM Ken Holland.  Holland’s contract is up at the end of the season so it may make more sense to make a decision on both their futures at the same time once April rolls around.
  • Senators defenseman Erik Karlsson is coming off a stellar performance on Saturday against Montreal and according to head coach Guy Boucher, he is right on target with their expectations when it comes to his recovery from offseason foot surgery. He told Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch that they felt Karlsson wouldn’t be fully recovered until around the holiday break given the nature of the procedure and the fact he basically jumped into games with no training camp and minimal practice.  If Ottawa is to play themselves back into the postseason hunt, they’ll need their top blueliner at his best and it appears he’s getting closer to being just that.

Red Wings Notes: Rebuild, Holland, Blashill

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Despite a 5-1 win over the Winnipeg Jets Tuesday night, the Detroit News’ John Niyo writes that fans or the front office shouldn’t buy into the mirage: the Detroit Red Wings needs to rebuild. Though Detroit impressively bounced back from a 10-1 shellacking against Montreal the previous Saturday, Niyo cautions that this team is not a playoff contender and shouldn’t be viewed as one, despite an impressive victory after six straight losses where two were especially bad. The course, Niyo continues, should be what owner Chris Ilitch’s other team (the Detroit Tigers) did: selling off bigger names to get better and younger. While hockey is a different setup than baseball, the Red Wings have a higher mountain to climb because of the contracts loaded down with term and dollars that few teams–if any–would ever consider taking. But selling off players with value could stockpile picks and help chart a future course that could net players that would get Detroit back into the higher echelon of the league.

  • Niyo continues on about general manager Ken Holland, who after 20 years at the helm, may be seeing it come to an end. Working without a contract after this season, extension talks haven’t begun, and Holland has stated that his decision on whether to sell or buy will be determined after the next 10-15 games. This seems curious, since the Red Wings are clearly not in contender status and have posted two six-game losing streaks this season–and it’s only December. Niyo adds that ownership ultimately has the final say–but that neither the proud past or the present, namely a few wins here and there, should get in the way of building for the future.
  • MLive’s Ansar Khan takes a different route, writing that the Wings posted their best performance of the season on Tuesday and now have a crucial five-game stretch where they can turn their fortunes around. Head coach Jeff Blashill noted that the team played more on their toes than their heels, and it was echoed by a number of players who felt Detroit limited its mistakes, and played at a high level for a full sixty minutes.

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