Detroit Red Wings fire coach Derek Lalonde, name Todd McLellan as his replacement

The Detroit Red Wings fired coach Derek Lalonde on Thursday and named Todd McLellan as his replacement, a major change by general manager Steve Yzerman more than a third of the way through another disappointing season in the place known as “Hockeytown.”

The move the day after Christmas comes with the Red Wings on a three-game skid and having lost nine of their past 12. They've lost 21 of their first 34 games this season and are above only the lowly Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference.

Lalonde was nearly midway through his third season with Detroit after winning the Stanley Cup twice as an assistant with Tampa Bay. Yzerman inherited Jeff Blashill as coach when he left the Lightning for the Red Wings in 2019 and hired Lalonde in the summer of 2022 with the goal of getting the team back in the playoffs.

Despite signing three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Kane in 2023 and re-signing him last offseason, the success has not approached the Red Wings’ glory days when they won the Cup four times between 1996-97 and 2007-08 — three times with Yzerman as captain and once with him working in the front office. Instead, their playoff drought is on track to reach a ninth year — second-longest in the league behind Buffalo.