LaLonde Fired. McLellan Hired in DET

[tabness]

 

[thekernel]

It must be tough as a GM to see your well-laid plans amount to years of failure. "Surely, it can't be the fault of the players I've assembled, because that would make it my fault. There must be another reason..."

 

[Boss Man Hughes]

I don't understand the discourse in this thread. The Wings tried new blood with their last two coaches, and it didn't work out.

So now they hire an established coach, and everyone is already writing it off like it's a failure?

Because he is a failure. He ensured a Cup contender in SJ would never win a Cup. LA fans say the same thing.

 

[Fatass]

Weird, considering this is only the second coach Yzerman has picked, yet you make it sound like it's his fifth...

You’re inferring stuff that isn’t there. This is hire two for Yzerman. How many does he get?

 

[Megaterio Llamas]

Will McLellan be bringing thec 1-3-1 to Motown?

 

[FinlandPanther]

He's a pleb

And a champion.

 

[tabness]

You’re inferring stuff that isn’t there. This is hire two for Yzerman. How many does he get?

you do realize how unfireable Yzerman is in the forseeable future don't you?

the question isn't how many coaching hires he gets, it's how many interns he would need to grope, his job is that safe in Detroit

 

[Borlag]

Kinda mixed thoughts about this, mostly about the timing. This season is beyond saving and any and all improvements will only result in worse draftpick. However at the same time any and all time spent in building an actual system, will help next season where it wont be a new system anymore. And that has been the single biggest gripe I've had with the team all season and before, that the system isn't working when it relies solely on goalies being hot and Larkin carrying the team.

With a proper defensive structure, I'm certain that at least one of Petry, Chiarot, Gustavson and Holl will perform better, or at the very least at 3rd pairing level, but what I'm not seeing anymore is how that alone would help make a playoff push.

Stevie didn't really shit the bed trading Walman out, I'm sure he had his reasons for that, it's the return and donated 2nd round pick that's iffy. But even ignoring that, the bigger thing where he absolutely did shit that bed was in replacing him and Ghost. Simply no excuse for that unless the idea was always in tanking for a pick, in which case why go with Tarasenko at all, why change the coach. There's no 3d chess going on, he's not infallible.

 

[brentashton]

EDM 14-15: 62 points
*McLellan Hired*
EDM 15-16: 70 points
EDM 16-17: 103 points
EDM 17-18: 78 points
EDM 18-19: 79 points (Fired November 2018)

They didn't particularly improve for the rest of the season after firing him...

LAK 18-19: 71 points
*McLellan Hired*
LAK 19-20: 64 points (COVID interrupted. 75 point pace)
LAK 20-21: 49 points (COVID season. 72 point pace)
LAK 21-22: 99 points
LAK 22-23: 104 points
LAK 23-24: 99 points (Fired February 2024)

Not exactly what I'd call "Hot garbage".

Well, plan the parade route then.

I think he’s garbage. Like I said , his career win percentage in a season would, in all probability have him missing the playoffs.

 

[Fatass]

you do realize how unfireable Yzerman is in the forseeable future don't you?

the question isn't how many coaching hires he gets, it's how many interns he would need to grope, his job is that safe in Detroit

Must be difficult being a Wing’s fan knowing Yzerman will continue as their GM watching the current iteration of the club.

 

[tabness]

Must be difficult being a Wing’s fan knowing Yzerman will continue as their GM watching the current iteration of the club.

It's been painful for ten years now, with Stevie there's a bit more hope than Kenny, even if simply because there's a lot more rope for him to figure it out. He's not going anywhere anytime soon, and so for us Wings fan there are just memories of our glory years in the nineties and 2000s until ASP comes in as the best D since Orr and turns this team around.

 

[T REX]

Damn Yzernan has been brutal for awhile now.

I was a yuge Yzerman fan growing up and then here in Tampa when he was GM.

Starting to wonder if he was the benefit of hiring great people around him.

He inherited some great players in Tampa too.

Yzerplan is in real trouble.

 

[gritdash60]

Love that Lalonde finally got the boot, but not sure about the replacement. Wings have 87 goals scored in 34 games, 30th in the league and they bring in a defensive minded coach?

 

[Borlag]

Love that Lalonde finally got the boot, but not sure about the replacement. Wings have 87 goals scored in 34 games, 30th in the league and they bring in a defensive minded coach?

The biggest problems are in defense, get proper support from there and the offense will look better. Will it be a world beater? Of course not, but better.

 

[norrisnick]

You’re inferring stuff that isn’t there. This is hire two for Yzerman. How many does he get?

However many he wants. This isn't baseball.

 

[A1LeafNation]

Even Scrooge was nice for Christmas.

 

[LeighDx59]

Whenever a coach gets fired and people complain about retread coaches, it reminds of people saying the Kraken made a horrible decision hiring an inexperienced Jessica Campbell as an ASSISTANT coach.

It's always a damned if you do, damned if you dont situation.

The Red Wings have been in "rebuild mode" since 2019 under Yzerman but had top ten picks in 2017 and 2018 as well. They should be on their way to returning to the post-season by now, but Steve has flat out failed to improve the club at all during his time as GM. Part of this is drafting- Detroit has 41 GP outside the first round through all of Yzerman's tenure- part of it is abysmal FA signings and the rest is probably explained by his poor coaching decisions.

Detroit is now on pace to finish bottom five again, but we're supposed to believe he's a management genius of some kind who intended on bottoming out nearly six calendar years into his stint while now having to fire his own hand-picked coach two seasons after the fact. The best he's been able to do is load up the DRW front office with his former teammates and family members and... well that's it really. Otherwise it takes a lot of mental gymnastics to paint what he's done as "success".

I get being critical of him, but the comment is just plain dumb.

The club has improved every season since he bottomed out (and got f***ed out of a top three pick) in 2020, and was a point away from making the Playoffs last season. This is actually the first season under Yzerman that has fallen below expectations and he just fired LaLonde, a big part of the reason why. It'll remain to be seen whether or not hiring McLellan works but I expect the Wings to improve as the the rest of the season plays out, especially if McLellan can get some of the players going who have been very underwhelming so far or if Yzerman can upgrade the defense more considering Seider and Edvinsson have been the only good defensmen on the Wings this season.

 

[Ciao]

Detroit should be playing better than they are.

Making a coaching change is a good move.

 

[BlueSeal]

This is an improvement as a stop-gap. Might even help turn the team around.

 

[VeteranPresence]

It's always a damned if you do, damned if you dont situation.



I get being critical of him, but the comment is just plain dumb.

The club has improved every season since he bottomed out (and got f***ed out of a top three pick) in 2020, and was a point away from making the Playoffs last season. This is actually the first season under Yzerman that has fallen below expectations and he just fired LaLonde, a big part of the reason why.

So the club hasn't really improved because they are on pace to be worse than last year, and apparently all blame for that should be placed on... the guy Yzerman hired. No, the criticism of him is totally fair and valid.

 

[Hale The Villain]

I'm someone who defended Yzerman for years due to people unfairly blaming him for the insanely poor position the Wings were in when he took over, but man a lot of his recent moves have been difficult to comprehend, let alone defend.

Lalonde actually got a lot out of a poor roster the last couple seasons. Wings had no business being in the playoff race with the personnel they had last year, and they somehow got worse in the off-season. Yzerman is definitely far more to blame for the team failing to make the playoffs the last 3 years.

 

[LeighDx59]

So the club hasn't really improved because they are on pace to be worse than last year, and apparently all blame for that should be placed on... the guy Yzerman hired. No, the criticism of him is totally fair and valid.

Way to ignore what I was actually responded too.

You said he hasnt improved the team at all during his tenure (wrong) and has aimed to bottom out the entire time (also wrong). And yeah, the team hasnt improved this season, so he took action to fix it.

 

[VivaLasVegas]

3 dud coaches in a row. Well done SY

Such a genius!

 

[DavidpauseReinbacher]

And a champion.

But pleb first. I could win a title if I had 30 tries at it too

 

[VivaLasVegas]

I'm someone who defended Yzerman for years due to people unfairly blaming him for the insanely poor position the Wings were in when he took over, but man a lot of his recent moves have been difficult to comprehend, let alone defend.

Easily explanable as desperation. Yzerman flopped with his rebuild and is now trying to cover that up by blaming scapegoats.

Will work so long as ownership lets him get away with it.

We've all seen this movie 50 times before. Different actors, but same familiar storyline.