Once a coach, always a coach.
So when Steve Yzerman called former Detroit assistant coach Todd McLellan a month ago, looking to make a head coaching change behind the Wings bench, replacing Derek Lalonde, the unemployed McLellan was all ears.
Just as Ken Hitchcock has always been, with all of his NHL assignments.
Completing the circle? You bet for McLellan, who started with the Wings 20 years ago before leaving for his first head job with San Jose in 2008, moved to the Oilers in 2015, then on to Los Angeles in 2019, before being a front-runner for the vacant Columbus job last summer, but it didn’t come off. He was watching NHL games on TV, lots of them, when Yzerman rang.
McLellan, 57, likely still had Red Wings’ clothing in the back of his closet for his first NHL coaching gig 20 years ago when Mike Babcock was the head coach and Stevie Y was the team captain.
“You know what … I still had some of that stuff around, but a lot of it has the Stanley Cup logo on it because that was my last year there, all those memories, and you don’t get rid of that,” said McLellan, who has the current Wings team rolling with an 11-4-1 record in his 15 games, well past the coaching change “bump” that usually happens for half a dozen games.
He immediately saw that the team spirit had to improve. From afar, he saw the slumped shoulders after losses, and the fight to win ebbing. That’s much better, now, although they’re still out of a playoff spot with 32 games left.
But back to all the places he’s been and gone, all the team gear.
“As the years go on and you belong to a number of NHL organizations, all of a sudden that stuff becomes, uh, a painting shirt,” he said.
Or they don’t fit the body anymore?
“Yeah, that, too,” laughed McLellan.
“More than anything, with all the organizations, it’s the memories, the good people you meet and the players you coach.”
When you’re a longtime coach like, say, Hitchcock, do you ever say ‘I’m done” after being fired, or is the urge always there watching games from your couch on TV, as a coach, not so much as a fan?
“The day you get the bad news, you’re so pissed off, you wonder if you’ll do this again, putting yourself in this type of situation to go through this misery again. But let’s face it, every player and every coach should give it everything they have,” he said.
“Then somebody walks in and tells you you’re not good enough or you’re not doing an adequate job, and you feel like swinging back a bit,” he said, with GM Peter Chiarelli firing him in 2018 for Hitchcock here, then GM Rob Blake firing him for his assistant Jim Hiller with the Kings in February 2024.
“Then you settle down, you get your battery recharged, you start watching games and when you find yourself swearing at the TV when you’re not even involved in the game, that’s a pretty good indication you want back in,” said McLellan, who brought his former Kings’ assistant Trent Yawney to Detroit.
“When that ceases for me, I’ll be done. But I’m not at that point.”
Did his wife Debbie say she was tired of seeing him around the house? So get out?
“Yeah, about the third day in,” he said, kiddingly.
“No, without her, none of this would have happened. She was really supportive and she’s very protective. When it was time to go back to work, she looked at me and asked, ‘Do you want to do this?’ I said, ‘Yup,’ and she was all in.”
McLellan knew more about Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Darnell Nurse than anybody on the current Wings team when he took the head job. From his days coaching the aforementioned Big Four here, and days in L.A. playing against Oilers in two straight playoff runs.
No players on the Wings team today remain from McLellan’s first go-round, so he’s coming in cold, and admits it was a major learning curve on names and faces.
“I landed in Detroit on the 26th (of December) and was coaching on the 27th. I didn’t know half the names. I apologized before the game. I was calling (Lucas) Raymond, Mason, because he used to play in Vancouver and I had a Tyler Motte for me when I was coaching in Swift Current but the junior was a goalie and here he’s a forward. I’m thinking, ‘Who is this?’ ’’
ANOTHER PIECE OF THE PUZZLE
We understand the speculation about the Oilers signing forward Brandon Saad for cheap money when he clears unconditional waivers because he played for GM Stan Bowman on two Chicago Cup winners. Bowman also traded winger Artemi Panarin to Columbus for Saad, in large part because Jonathan Toews had Saad as a linemate.
But would Saad actually be a fit here? Do the Oilers, already the oldest team in the league, really need another bottom six winger, a 32-year-old, especially one who plays left side. They have Ryan Nugent-Hopkins or Leon Draisaitl on the No. 1 line with Connor McDavid’s, also Vasily Podkolzin, Mattias Janmark, Jeff Skinner, who has a no move, no waivers, no trade clause, and either Kasperi Kapanen or Corey Perry as additional wingers?
Those who’ve watched Saad, 32, closely this season — seven goals in three games, including a hat-trick, and no goals in 40 other games — give him mixed reviews. He still has a good game along the boards, but isn’t as fast. He’s had many nights when he hasn’t look involved, unusual for a guy with 906 NHL games and 27 goals and 55 points in 103 playoff games.
Sure, the Oilers would take a guy without giving up assets and you admire a veteran who would leave about $5 million on the table with his contract terminated so he can stay in the NHL rather than go to the minors, although he’s made well over $50 million in his career, so he’s not poor.
But again Saad, even as a rental, seems an add to something the Oilers already have lots of. Toronto, Dallas, Vegas and Washington and Colorado are logically in the hunt for a cheap asset, too.
AWARD TIME
As part of the NHL’s initiative to name each club’s Quarter Century first- and second-team stars, here’s what it looks like here after a vote by media covering the franchise.
First team:
Forwards — McDavid, Draisaitl and Nugent-Hopkins.
Defence — Darnell Nurse and Evan Bouchard.
Goal — Dwayne Roloson.
Second team:
Forwards — Ryan Smyth, Ales Hemsky, Shawn Horcoff.
Defence — Jason Smith and Mattias Ekholm.
Goal — Tommy Salo.
My vote had Nurse and Smith on first-team defence and Salo in goal.
On the second, Steve Staios and Chris Pronger with just one season but a fantastic one in 2005-2006 were my defence votes. Roloson was in net.
This ‘n that: The Oilers sat Troy Stecher to get John Klingberg into his maiden voyage on the blue line. Jeff Skinner, a healthy scratch for the sixth time against Seattle, was back in and Kapanen came out … Wings goalie Cam Talbot, who knows McLellan better than anybody else in their room after having McLellan as his coach here and in L.A., got the night off for Alex Lyon … Former Oilers goalie Jack Campbell, bought out here and on a one-year contract with Wings, has a 2.15 average and a .917 save percentage in six games on the farm in Grand Rapids after time spent in the NHL’s Player Assistance program.