Abel to Yzerman

Abel to Yzerman

Coaching Fit For The Detroit Red Wings

05/23/2022 at 11:44am EDT

from Scott Burnside of the Daily Faceoff,

To be clear, no one will balk at getting an NHL head coaching job. There are just 32, after all. But these openings are not created equally, so let’s have a look at how the current vacancies size up, with some pros and cons and who might be good fits....

Pros

The Red Wings have all kinds of shiny young assets starting with Moritz Seider, who should be the rookie of the year in our books. And they have the eighth-overall pick in this summer’s draft. And you are in a relatively new arena in an Original Six market where ownership has been nothing but supportive of the team for decades. What’s not to like so far? In spite of that, expectations are relatively modest, which isn’t to say coaches look for an easy path, but having realistic expectations that are in sync with management and ownership is critical to a long and healthy relationship....

Cons

The cons are pretty much all on the ice. The defense is still a mess. The goaltending is, well, fluid at best and marginal at worst. You had a talented player in Tyler Bertuzzi who thought so little of his team and teammates that he wouldn’t get vaccinated and thus couldn’t travel to Canada when the Red Wings crossed the border....

Who Fits?

Again, expect the unexpected from Yzerman. What about David Carle, coming off an NCAA championship in Denver, and a young but accomplished coach who could grow into a contender with this Red Wing team? Top non-North American coach Rikard Gronborg has been at least given some consideration by a number of NHL teams in recent years and, given the strong Swedish connection that has long been part of the Red Wings’ DNA – Yzerman recently promoted Hall of Fame defenseman Nicklas Lidstrom to a management position – if Yzerman feels Gronborg can take this team where it needs to go, he would have no hesitation in hiring him. I’ll continue to advocate for a tandem of DeBoer and Maurice, both of whom have strong connection to the Detroit area and, well, it would be a ton of fun plus they might just be able to get the Red Wings back to contender status in short order.

more plus other teams in need of a coach...

Create an Account

In order to leave a comment, please create an account.

About Abel to Yzerman

Welcome to Abel to Yzerman, a Red Wing blog since 1977. No other site on the internet has better-researched, fact-laden and better prepared discussions than A2Y. Re-phrase: we do little research, find facts and stats highly overrated and claim little to no preparation. There are 19 readers of A2Y. No more, no less. All of them, except maybe one, are juvenile in nature. Reminding them of that in the comment section will only encourage them to prove that.

Most Recent Posts

Most Recent Comments

Comment by calquake in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Mathematically… - 1 second ago
Comment by calquake in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Mathematically… - 2 minutes ago
Comment by Cigar-Nurse in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Mathematically… - 3 minutes ago
Comment by bigfrog in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Mathematically… - 7 minutes ago
Comment by rwbill in Abel to Yzerman from the entry Mathematically… - 7 minutes ago