Detroit Red Wings: 3 coaching candidates organization will miss out on
By Bob Heyrman
The Nashville Predators fired head coach Peter Laviolette at the beginning of January. He’d make a perfect head coach for the Detroit Red Wings.
Nashville had fired Laviolette after back-to-back division titles and an impressive 2017 Stanley Cup Finals appearance. Peter led the Predators to an average 19-15-7 record in 2020 at the time of his release.
The hot trend is to hire younger head coaches, but as you can tell by my shortlist, I’d prefer a veteran head coach to replace Jeff Blashill during the organizations’ rebuild. Laviolette is a Stanley Cup Champion after leading the Carolina Hurricanes to a title win in 2006.
Later, he’d become the fourth head coach in NHL history to lead three different teams to a Stanley Cup finals appearance. Although Laviolette failed to win another Cup after Carolina, he’d bring both Philadelphia and Nashville to the finals.
Laviolette was poised to coach Team USA in the 2020 World Hockey Championships until COVID-19 disposed of that agenda.
The Detroit Red Wings young roster will benefit from a coach that’s been to a Stanley Cup final, and in this case, won one. Laviolette has coached 18 seasons in the NHL and has produced 637 wins, which ranks him 16th on the all-time win list.
The expansion team in Seattle will likely have their sights set on Laviolette or Gallant, but both would be a significant upgrade to Blashill.