The spring and summer of 2022 was a significant one for the Detroit Red Wings. Not only was that the first offseason where general manager (GM) Steve Yzerman invested significant money into improving the Red Wings in a meaningful way, but it was also the first time since 2014 that the organization hired a new head coach. Out went longtime head coach Jeff Blashill and in came Derek Lalonde, an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning who was originally hired by Yzerman during his time as GM of the Lightning.
Since then, Lalonde, affectionately known as “Newsy” among the fanbase, has found his way as a head coach in the NHL. The Red Wings are his first NHL head coaching gig, and the team has enjoyed improved results in both of his seasons behind the bench. Now set to embark on his third season as the bench boss in Detroit, the demand to improve on last season has never been greater.
Lalonde Hired to Improve Defense
After last season’s offensive fireworks, you may be forgiven if you forgot that Lalonde was originally brought to Detroit with a mandate to clean up the team’s defensive play. The Red Wings’ defense folded like an old jersey in Blashill’s final season as blowout losses happened too frequently for anyone’s liking. That’s why, along with bringing in Lalonde, Yzerman spent a large sum of money in the 2022 offseason to bring in competent, veteran players, most of which had a history of being effective in their own zone.
Related: Are the Red Wings a Playoff Team?
In Lalonde’s first season, the Red Wings allowed 33 goals less than the season prior. The finished seventh in the Atlantic Division and had a losing record of 35-37-10, but the improvement was clear as day. If the Red Wings had a little extra firepower that season, they probably could have made things really interesting down the stretch.
You would then be forgiven if you thought that the Red Wings were set to take the next step last season. Yzerman deciding to try to capitalize on his team’s defensive strides by adding some firepower in the 2023 offseason, culminating in the addition of Patrick Kane a month into the season. They scored 38 more goals than the previous season, and they even finished with a winning record of 41-32-9. Even though they allowed five fewer goals, team defense was a weakness that was exacerbated by average-to-poor goaltending.
Heading into the 2024-25 season, the Red Wings’ roster looks to be more well-rounded with a skillful top six matched by a defensively-savvy bottom six. Lalonde’s challenge is to put it all together and match the stout defense of the 2022-23 team with the offensive explosiveness of the 2023-24 team.
Lalonde’s Worst Habits
Whether it’s his time as an assistant in Tampa Bay or the head coach in Detroit, Lalonde has generally produced positive results in the NHL. It’s why Yzerman handpicked Lalonde as Blashill’s successor in 2022, and it’s why the GM stuck with his guy this offseason amidst cries for a change after the Red Wings let a playoff spot slip through their hands last season.
But like every coach, Lalonde is far from perfect. He is still considered inexperienced compared to most of his peers, and that fact is evident in a few different areas.
First, in the same way that Blashill was known for mixing up his lines too often, Lalonde has already developed a reputation of sticking with his lines and pairings for far too long. In 2022-23, he stuck with a top pairing of Ben Chiarot and Moritz Seider for months despite the pairing’s defensive struggles. When Lalonde eventually replaced Chiarot with Jake Walman, Seider’s performance greatly improved, and the Red Wings won a lot more games because of it. Another example was Lalonde’s unwillingness to use goaltender Alex Lyon through the first month of the season despite receiving poor results from Ville Husso and James Reimer.
Second and probably most damning, the Red Wings don’t seem to respond to him when things aren’t going well. Consider the stretch from Feb. 29 to Mar. 17 last season where Detroit lost eight out of nine games, including two games where they allowed seven goals against. While it is important to note that Dylan Larkin was out of commission for seven of those nine games, it cannot be overstated just how out of sorts the Red Wings looked during a stretch that ultimately doomed their playoff push. Detroit needed to play with playoff desperation during that period of time, but they could barely muster up a whimper until the second half of March.
When the Red Wings did turn it on late in the season, it felt like they were playing for each other rather than for the coaching staff. While you do want the players on your team to play for each other, there was a lot more chaos in those final games than an experienced coach would be comfortable with.
From the outside looking in, it seems like Lalonde doesn’t always have a good read on his team. Whether it’s lineup decisions or the necessary approach to coax points and wins out of his team, the question of whether or not he puts his team in the best position to win on a nightly basis has come up far too often.
Benchmarks for Success
It is no secret that Red Wing fans are starved for playoff hockey. At a time where the Detroit Lions are Super Bowl favorites and the Detroit Tigers are playing meaningful games in September, the Red Wings – whose 2008 championship still stands as the city’s most recent – are on the precipice of reminding everyone why Detroit is also known as “Hockeytown”.
The Red Wings have seen their season point total increase in each year of Yzerman’s tenure as GM. After finishing with 91 points last season, however, the focus now shifts from stats like points and goals-against to the team’s overall ability to play quality hockey on a nightly basis. After all, while the numbers say that the Red Wings were much improved last season, inconsistencies at both ends of the ice ultimately doomed them just as they did during the Blashill era.
Lalonde arrived in Detroit with championship pedigree. His name is on the Stanley Cup twice thanks to his time on the Lightning’s bench, and he is credited with establishing the Toledo Walleye’s ongoing run of excellence in the ECHL. In his third season as the Red Wings’ bench boss, he is now tasked with molding the team into a legitimate playoff contender by applying the lessons he learned through his first two seasons.
Fair or not, Lalonde has very little wiggle room to work with. After narrowly missing the playoffs last season, the natural next step is to make the playoffs. Bare minimum, the Red Wings need to find themselves in the same spot they were in last season where all 82 games were important – and that’s while most people expect some regression as Detroit is set to incorporate more youth into their lineup over the course of the season.
While Lalonde was brought in to clean up the Red Wings’ defensive play, he was ultimately hired to teach them good habits which then lead to a playoff brand of hockey. If the team’s worst habits persist and begin to derail the season, Yzerman may be forced to do something he hasn’t done since the 2012-13 season: fire and hire a coach in the middle of a season. Oh, and by the way, Lalonde is also in the final year of the three-year contract he signed to coach the Red Wings.
In other words, it’s time for Lalonde to make a name for himself as an NHL head coach.
