Mike Babcock sent a shockwave throughout the entire NHL when he decided to leave Detroit in favor of a much worse situation in Toronto. The Red Wings, though, did not have to look far to find their next head coach. Instead of having to search the NHL in the hope of finding a replacement for Babcock, they were able to find the best candidate in their own AHL team.
Detroit’s AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, head coach Jeff Blashill was named the 27th head coach of the Detroit Red Wings. While the move to name the Detroit native head coach, without much of a search, may come as a surprise to some, for those who have followed the situation, the move made sense for a variety of reasons.
He is a Proven Winner
Blashill won the USHL title and finished in the final four of the NCAA Division 1 tournament before being chosen as assistant to former head coach Babcock. After the 2011 campaign, which resulted in a playoff berth, Blashill was named head coach of Grand Rapids. In his first season there, he won the team’s first Calder Cup by winning the AHL.
Familiarity With Detroit’s Players
Many of the players that were on that team are now apart of the Red Wings. They have all had success with Blashill and know that he can lead them to success. The Calder Cup MVP, Tomas Tatar, has proven to be one of Detroit’s greatest assets. Last season, he scored 20 goals to go along with 56 points and was able to score three goals in the playoffs. Another 50-point scorer this year for Detroit, Gustav Nyquist, also won the Calder Cup with Blashill. Nyquist put together a 54 point season, scoring 27 goals for Detroit.
Danny DeKeyser, who has played over 20 minutes a game the past couple of years for Detroit, was also a part of that championship team. Blashill’s starting goalie for the championship, Petr Mrazek, is currently the starting goalie for Detroit. He played in every game for the Red Wings in the post season, managing a 92.5 save percentage as well as a 2.11 goals against average.
Ability to Develop Players
What do all four of these young budding stars have in common? None of them were drafted in the first round. Tatar was drafted 60th, Nyquist was drafted 121st, Mrázek was drafted 141st and DeKeyser was undrafted. This is important considering Detroit has been short of top 10 picks for about half a century. They have been to the postseason the last 24 seasons.
In a city that demands a playoff berth every single year, you are going to have to find a way to win without the luxury of tanking for a top 10 pick. The work Blashill has put in with the players mentioned above among others shows he does not need top 10 caliber prospects in order to be successful. He can turn raw talent drafted in the middle rounds of the draft into NHL stars. If you look at the current stars of Detroit, they also fit this mold. Niklas Kronwall was drafted 29th, Pavel Datsyuk was drafted 171st and Henrik Zetterberg was drafted 210th.
Detroit’s Lack of Playoff Success
While Detroit has been able to make it to the playoffs in each of the last five seasons, their success in the playoffs has diminished. Since 2010, they have only won 2 playoff series and win one division title. This all comes while their core led by Datsyuk has been aging. Babcock over the last five years hasn't found enough success with new players, and has had to rely too much on Datsyuk.
The result is that Datsyuk has had a number of injuries and just cannot carry the team in the postseason. Blashill’s prospects that have come up the last couple of years are likely what have kept the playoff streak alive; in the 2013 season Detroit managed only 39 wins while Datsyuk only played in 45 games. Detroit needs this new youth movement to succeed in order to keep the playoff streak alive. Detroit hopes Blashill’s success with them in the AHL will translate into the NHL.