As the Red Wings closed out a season in which they allowed the second most goals in the NHL, Steve Yzerman decided it was time for a change behind the bench.
"I don’t want to say we’re not going in the right direction, but our inability to improve our play with and without the puck, the fundamentals of playing, we just weren’t able to improve our play in those areas, mostly on the defensive side of things," Yzerman said Tuesday on the Stoney & Jansen Show. "With the players that we have, we had certain expectations. Our expectations honestly weren’t to win the Stanley Cup with the team that we had, but looking to improve in areas and we weren’t doing that.
"So I can’t tell you specifically when, but within the last couple weeks, month, two months, the feeling was that I’m going to have to make a decision. Whether it was 10 games left or 15 games left, (I decided), I’ll make the change at the end of the season."
So Jeff Blashill is out, and Yzerman intends to have his successor in place by the time the draft rolls around in July. It will be Yzerman's second coaching hire as a GM, but it won't be like his first when he knew Jon Cooper was ready to jump from the AHL to the NHL for the Lightning. Nine years later, Cooper is a two-time Cup champ and the longest-tenured head coach in the league.
"That was kind of an easy one," Yzerman said. "He was (already) a really good coach. In the situation now, I don’t have that specific person in mind where it's like, OK, we’re announcing that we’re not bringing back the coach on Saturday and on Sunday, here’s the new coach. I plan to make a very broad, long list of people that might be worth looking into and then look into that long list to decide who I really want to talk to and be serious about talking to. And I don’t want that list to be particularly long."
The next coach will be taking over a team that's still grinding through a rebuild. A patient personality will be necessary. At the same time, Yzerman is looking for someone who can push the Red Wings' young core to be better. Someone who reminds Yzerman of the coaches who got the most out of him as a player. Someone, ultimately, who can end the second longest playoff in franchise history.
"When I was growing up, I was very fortunate to have some excellent coaches," Yzerman said. "I guess the one trait of successful coaches or the guys who I thought were really good were extremely demanding, to the point where you walk out of the locker room some days and you’re like, ‘Oh my god, I want to strangle that guy.' But they make you better players and they make you win. So that would be maybe the one trait I’m looking for, is somebody who’s going to push and demand of our players.
"But everyone’s personality is different. Three names that I bring up, the most successful coaches that I played for, were Glen Sather, Scotty Bowman in Detroit and Mike Babcock in Detroit. All very successful coaches, very different personalities, but they were demanding and they were tough. And I think that’s a common trait even in today’s world where things have changed in how we all treat one another."
A young roster will likely get younger next season assuming prospects Simon Edvinsson and Jonatan Berggren make the team. Again, that also puts a premium on a coach who will keep his cool through inevitable growing pains.
"With a lot of younger players coming potentially in the next one, two, three years, I think it’s important to have someone with somewhat of a calm demeanor. That’s one of the strengths that I think Jeff Blashill had, he had a calm demeanor, he could handle it in this situation to not lose it. That just wouldn’t have worked with this group. With a team that’s rebuilding and when there are going to be tough times, I think you need somebody that can remain composed but be extremely firm or demanding at the same time."
The gains this season were small, but the Red Wings improved their points percentage for the second year in a row. The goal for the next coach will be to continue that, until, eventually, the Wings are back where they belong. A proud franchise has the most losses in the NHL over the last six seasons, the last three of which have come under Yzerman's watch. With impatience creeping into the fanbase, Yzerman was asked if he's growing impatient himself.
"No, I want to see improvement," he said. "Just like if you follow the team, there’s days you walked out of the rink and felt good this year and there were days I walked out of the rink like, ‘Oh boy.’ I know people don’t want to hear it, the fanbase wants to see better results sooner than later, but the reality is, it takes a long time when there’s 32 teams and it’s hard to get difference-makers."
With that in mind, Yzerman is sticking to his plan of building through the draft, though he did say he'd like to be more aggressive this summer in free agency.
"It just takes time with each draft, so I try to improve a little bit each year. You want to get an impact player in free agency. The elite players, they really don’t ever get to free agency and even trying to trade for them is difficult. If we’re going to get an elite player through a trade, guess what? Our best young guys and our top draft picks are leaving. I don’t know if that makes sense for us at this stage," Yzerman said. "So I just gotta stick with it and hopefully at some point we turn the corner.
"I just feel at this stage, I’m not going to change what I’ve set out do, which is to continue to build through the draft and be patient with the young guys. If anything might change, if we can do it, is to be a little bit more aggressive in free agency now. But it’s not going to be, acquire a player at all costs. It’s still trying to be diligent and responsible and I don’t want (to say) conservative, but I’d like to be a little bit more aggressive, if possible."