Report: Detroit Red Wings To Hire Jeff Blashill
By Joe Chapp
In a report from M-Live, The Detroit Red Wings are set to hire Jeff Blashill.
When Grand Rapids was eliminated from the Calder Cup Playoffs, Detroit had their eyes set on their coach Blashill. Blashill won a Calder Cup with Grand Rapids, and was key in development of some promising Red Wings players. Blashill has coached Thomas Tatar, Riley Sheahan, Petr Mrazek, Gustav Nyquist and Tomas Jurco all of whom were on the team that won the Calder Cup.
It’s no surprise the Red Wings will hire Jeff Blashill, perhaps the only competition to Blashill was Dan Bylsma. Bylsma the former Pittsburgh Penguins coach is now the Buffalo Sabres head coach.
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Blashill grew up in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, but was born in Detroit. Blashill is 41 years old, but was an assistant under former Red Wings head coach Mike Babcock. Before becoming a coach, Jeff Blashill was a goaltender for the Ferris State Bulldogs. Before coaching in the NHL as an assistant, and then becoming the man behind the Grand Rapids Griffins bench.
Blashill coached at Western Michigan where he led the Broncos to a top-four finish in the CCHA, the CCHA Championship game, and the 2011 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Tournament. That was Western Michigan’s best season in fifteen years.
Blashill won coach of the year in 2013-14 in the AHL. In Blashill’s first year with Indiana and Grand Rapids he won Championships in the USHL and AHL. Blashill will be taking over a team that is ready to compete for a Stanley Cup. Detroit lost to Tampa Bay in round one and Tampa Bay is in the Stanley Cup Finals now. Detroit has a talented group of young kids, it’s going to be interesting to see what team will do with Blashill at the helm. It will be interesting to see if Blashill will want some Griffins up in Detroit.
The Detroit Red Wings must have had this planned all along, signing Blashill to an extension knowing they could possible lose Mike Babcock to another team. Babcock had nothing, but good things to say about Blashill.
"He’s gone down there and he’s been real good, and we talked five times a week ever since,” Babcock said. “He’s a great man. He’s a great coach. I’m proud of what we were able to accomplish here.“I think the best CEOs of companies have a succession plan. I think that’s what Ken Holland’s done is just keep building people, developing people, giving people opportunities. This guy’s ready to be an NHL coach. If he’s not in Detroit he’s going to be somewhere else for sure. He’s trained all of these guys that are his kids.”"
Babcock remembered when he first contacted Blashill for an a job as an assistant to Babcock.
"“This is how quick life changes,” Babcock said. “I left him a message. He had just been one year at Western there and I phoned him and said, ‘This is Mike Babcock; I’m the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings. Could you give me a call?’ He called me back and laughed and said, ‘Yeah, I know who you were.’“And then I interviewed him and nobody had ever heard of him.”"
Blashill will be the next Red Wings head coach according to M-Live reports. What will the future hold for the Red Wings moving forward?
Next: Five players the Red Wings should look at in free agency