On February 29, the  Wings held a comfortable 9 point lead on the first wildcard spot. Since then, crunch time, the Wings have lost eleven games — out of fourteen. Now, March 29, the Wings are unlikely to make the playoffs, again. Who is most to blame? Coach Derek Lalonde or General Manager Steve Yzerman? Might one take the other down?

Nobody expected this. When the Detroit Red Wings hired Steve Yzerman to be General Manager, expectations were for Stanley Cups. Five years later, however, the Wings have yet to even crack the playoffs. Not even as a wildcard. Yzerman, beloved by fans as one of the all-time great Wings players, deserves his share of the blame for the failure.

No NHL Head Coaching Experience

Derek Lalonde had no NHL head coaching experience when Yzerman surprised fans by naming Lalonde head coach of the Red Wings. At the announcement, in July 2022, Yzerman said “we feel (Lalonde) is ready to take the next step in his career as the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings.” That feeling may cost Yzerman his job.

Yzerman’s gamble has not paid off. Was it a bad bet? To be fair, Derek Lalonde paid his dues. Hailing from upstate New York, closer to Montreal than Albany, Lalonde got his start in coaching as a grad assistant at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He then moved on to Lebanon Valley College and then Hamilton College, before moving to Ferris State University, a Division 1 school. Lalonde then jumped to the University of Denver before being named head coach of the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL, where he led the team to the league championship. From 2014-2016, Lalonde was head coach of the Toledo Walleye, the Wings’ ECHL farm club. Lalonde had one more stop, as head coach of the Iowa Wild, the Minnesota Wild’s AHL affiliate, before joining the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning as assistant coach. Lalonde was assistant coach with Tampa from 2018-2022. Based on this record, Yzerman made him head coach of the Detroit Red Wings.