Speculation: Who's the next coach?

[dalem177]

your Minnesota is showing. put that thing away!

I've been here 23 years! It's growing on me.

 

[Dotter]

November 9th might be Laldone's last day coaching DRWs. Wings get a full 3 days break, so perfect opportunity to get the new [veteran] coach in for a little time to gel and training.

If Yzerman is going for, god forbid, a rookie coach then I don't expect Laldone to be fired. He'll finish the season and Y will start a new rookie coach fresh 2025/2026 season.

This rookie coach experiment is beyond stale.

 

[FMichael]

Wasn’t it Quenneville that Joey Kocur wanted to rip his heart out on the bench a few years back? No for Quenneville. Yes for Larionov

Not gonna lie...I like Quenneville more now.

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

The idea of a Larionov or a Fedorov head coach has me intrigued. Mostly because if Fedorov is the head coach, they'll finally do the right thing and retire his number, a topic which has NOT been discussed nearly enough for my taste.

 

[PelagicJoe]

Campbell has that team playing with energy and a killer instinct, absolutely, and he deserves every bit of praise he's getting. But GM Brad Holmes has been killing it with his draft and signings. He's injected the right talent, often elite talent, into every position required and is taking bold swings that are paying off. Conventional wisdom said the team didn't need Gibbs and Montgomery but here we are, with the Lions dominating the run game and having two guys fresh and pounding at every phase of the game. Brilliant.

Unfortunately due to the molasses nature of hockey drafting, guaranteed and long contracts for anyone remotely good, and usually meh free agency there hasn't been that kind of immediate impact for the Red Wings. Overall I've liked the steady hand and drafting of Yzerman, I see the vision, but the free agency and trades have been a mixed bag at best so we're left with a middling roster that will steal games here and there but ultimately needs the high draft picks to hit, and hit hard, or else we're going to be cycling coaches for the next decade.

The Lions didn't just get a coach with a great gameplan and attitude, they also rebuilt core components of their team in the span of a few years which is entirely possible in the NFL and dreadfully, boringly not possible in the NHL.

Honestly the older I get, the more I dislike the incredibly slow build of teams in the NHL. Without one of two significant draft gifts, McDavid or McKinnon level, you're staring down the barrel at 10 years of "We're building something!" games rather than believing you can actually get hot and win the whole damn thing.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but this is my long-winded way of saying I'm not sure cycling coaches is going to do much for this Red Wings team other than give us something new to talk about.

You bring up a good point. I love the fact that the NFL draft is relevant compared to the NHL or MLB.

 

[Air Budd Dwyer]

it would explain a lot if people are taking their beliefs about organization building from the NFL and transposing them on the NHL before complaining about the state of the Wings rebuild.

Exactly and I've tried to explain that difference to so many people who I'll never meet in person lol. It's really not hard to understand. In the NFL you draft 21-24 year old, physically developed men. You can get high level talent in the 2nd or even 3rd round that can come in on day 1 and produce on the field (Brian Branch anyone?). In the NHL you draft 18-19 year olds, most of whom aren't even close to being done developing physically. Outside of your top 5, sure fire, blue chip prospects, they won't be on the team and ready to contribute for at least 2-3 years. And that's if you're lucky. The NHL draft feels like more of a crapshoot where you're drafting on potential where the NFL draft feels like you're drafting a near ready product. I don't even value NHL draft picks after the 1st round anymore lol.

Holmes gave us false expectations for how long a rebuild should take. I've never seen a guy as good at evaluating talent as that man. Brad Holmes on draft day is the most valuable figure in Detroit sports.