Report: 2 Names Linked to Red Wings In Potential Coaching Change

As a lame duck coach on the final year of his contract, Detroit Red Wings bench boss Derek Lalonde's job is reportedly hanging by a string. He is rumored to be the next head coach to get the axe and two potential big name replacements have surfaced as possibilities.

Lalonde is in the final year of his contract, and the Red Wings are fumbling along in 6th place in the Atlantic Division, one game under .500 at 10-11-3.

The Fourth Period is reporting that two names are among those under consideration if Lalonde is let go:

Though Joel Quenneville has been linked as a possible candidate to replace Lalonde, multiple league sources have suggested to TFP that the Wings could pursue former Edmonton Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft as an option if the Wings make a change behind the bench.

Woodcroft was handed his walking papers just over a year ago, after the Oilers got off to a 3-9-1 start to the 2023-24 season. Despite the perplexing start last year, the now-48-year-old head coach had an impressive 79-41-13 record in his 133 regular-season games with the Oilers over three seasons, while going a more pedestrian 14-14 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Since he was let go, Woodcroft has acted as a coach for Team Canada at the 2024 IIHF World Championship. He attended the Global Series with the NHL Coaches' Association in Prague and also spent some time with the Philadelphia Flyers at training camp this fall at the invitation of John Tortorella.

Quenneville has had a much more extensive history coaching in the NHL, and a much more controversial one off the ice. He is the second-winningest coach in league history with 969 victories.

The 65-year-old was reinstated on July 1 by the NHL after being forced to step down from the Florida Panthers on Oct. 28, 2021 following an investigation into the Kyle Beach sexual assault affair from 2010. It was Quenneville's lack of response as the Chicago Blackhawks bench boss at that time that led to his eventual ouster from the league three years ago. But he is ready and able to return. It remains to be seen if Red Wings boss Steve Yzerman is willing to go there.

What we do know is that Yzerman is poised to make some moves, perhaps many, to try to shake up the Red Wings—whether it be behind the bench and/or on the ice.