Red Wings coaching hunt turns to Jeff Blashill

By @SKubus –

DETROIT – Ken Holland made it clear Wednesday afternoon who he plans to pursue as the new head coach of the Detroit Red Wings with Mike Babcock now out of the picture.

The Red Wings GM said he plans to meet with Grand Rapids head coach Jeff Blashill on an off day during the next round of the AHL playoffs to discuss the future of the head coaching position in Detroit.

“He’s the first person I want to talk to,” Holland said.

With that said, Holland added that the primary focus for now is to let the man simply do his job.

“I want the focus of Jeff Blashill and the Grand Rapids Griffins to be on winning the next series and having those young players in our system to continue to experience playoff hockey.”

But what makes Blashill ‘the guy,’ an NHL-ready coach in Holland’s eyes?

“He seems to have something, he wins wherever he goes,” Holland said. “I look at what he did in Western Michigan and getting them in the NCAA tournament. I think he had a tremendous positive influence in building that program. I think prior to that, he won the championship in Indianapolis (USHL), he took over the prospect tournament in Traverse City. We had never won that tournament, he coached the team his first year we hired him as the Grand Rapids coach. They won that tournament, they won the Calder Cup… He was named the coach of the year in the American Hockey League, got 100 points this year in the third round of the playoffs, they were down 2-0 to Toronto in the first round of the playoffs.

“So, No. 1, he wins. Why does he win? When I look at Mike Babcock, I see lots of similarities in Jeff Blashill, but again I want to talk to him. Making players accountable, having a tremendous work ethic, having passion, having a plan.”

Last season, Holland said he had five teams call inquiring about Blashill’s availability, but Blashill told Holland he liked where he was at and wanted to stay. Now, it’s reasonable to think that Blashill’s loyalty, patience and dedication could just make him the first Michigan native to coach the Red Wings.

“I like to be loyal to people; Blash was loyal to us, Blash chose to stay, Blash could’ve interviewed with a lot of teams, Blash has had a real positive impact on the younger people in our organization, and he’s had a real positive impact in Grand Rapids,” Holland said.

And possibly what gives Blashill an inside track over any other potential candidate is something that experience and a thorough track record can’t quite compete with: familiarity.

“Certainly with Blash, we’ve worked together,” Holland said. “He was here for a year as an assistant coach. He worked more for Mike, I would go in the room and talk to the head coach every day. Ryan Martin’s the GM, he talks to Blash, so I want to spend some time with Blash, then I’ll decide what’s the next step after I’ve met with Jeff Blashill.”

In fact, the Red Wings could have an entirely new staff behind the bench come next season, as assistant coaches Tony Granato came over from Pittsburgh with an option after one year, while Andrew Brewer and Jim Hiller each signed one-year deals to correspond with Babcock’s expiring deal.

“I want people that want to be in Detroit, and their contracts are up, so certainly I was a big boy,” Holland said. “I understood when I signed those people to one-year deals what could happen in the summer of 2015, so that’ll play out here over the next two, three weeks.”