The Detroit Red Wings have regressed to the point where they are closer to the bottom of the overall standings than to a playoff spot. And head coach Derek Lalonde has paid the price.
Lalonde was fired Thursday and replaced by Todd McLellan, who was signed to a multiyear contract.
Lalonde was midway through his third season, with the team just two points out of the Eastern Conference basement at 13-17-4.
McLellan, 57, has 16 years of NHL head-coaching experience with San Jose, Edmonton and Los Angeles, posting a record of 598-412-134 in the regular season and 42-46 in the playoffs.
His 598 regular-season wins are 24th in NHL history and sixth-most among active coaches behind Paul Maurice (891), Lindy Ruff (876), Peter Laviolette (823), John Tortorella (757) and Peter DeBoer (632).
Teams coached by McLellan have reached the 50-win mark three times and the 100-point plateau six times. McLellan's teams have also advanced to the Stanley Cup playoffs nine times. He is a two-time finalist for the Jack Adams Award as the NHL's coach of the year (2009, 2017).
McLellan was an assistant coach with the Red Wings under Mike Babcock from 2005-06 to 2007-08, when he left to become San Jose's head coach after winning a Stanley Cup.
The Red Wings hired Trent Yawney as an assistant coach, joining Alex Tanguay and Jay Varady on the staff. The club relieved associate coach Bob Boughner of his duties.
The is only the second time the Red Wings have made a midseason coaching change in 42 years of ownership under the Ilitches. Brad Park replaced Harry Neale midway through the 1985-86 season.
The past three games likely sealed Lalonde's fate. After squandering a third-period lead at home Friday in a 4-3 loss to Montreal, the Red Wings lost 5-1 on the road to the Canadiens 24 hours later in one of their worst games of the season. They sunk even lower with a 4-0 loss Monday to St. Louis, getting booed off the ice once again this season at Little Caesars Arena.
Yzerman hired Lalonde on June 30, 2022, after he spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Lalonde had never been an NHL head coach but had success as a head coach at several levels - AHL Iowa, ECHL Toledo and USHL Green Bay, where he won a Clark Cup championship in 2012.
The Red Wings posted a record of 89-86-23 under Lalonde.
The Red Wings made strides last season, going on a 16-4-2 run in January and February that gave them an eight-point cushion in the playoff chase. But a seven-game losing streak and 8-13-3 finish caused them to miss the final playoff spot due to a tiebreaker with Washington (regulation wins).
The Red Wings' primary objective was to lower their goals against, but they haven't improved appreciably (ranked 25th at 3.26 per game, compared to 3.35 last season). The penalty kill, second to last, has been a season-long dilemma.
Scoring figured to be the team's biggest issue after losing a lot of offense in the offseason with the departures of forwards David Perron, Robby Fabbri and Daniel Sprong and defensemen Shayne Gostisbehere and Jake Walman. That has turned out to be the case. The Red Wings rank 29th in goals per game at 2.56 and have struggled five-on-five.
The club was hoping to compensate for some of that lost offense with the additions of Vladimir Tarasenko and Erik Gustafsson and a full season with Patrick Kane and Jonatan Berggren, but those players have combined for only 13 goals.