Red Wings rout the Penguins in Pittsburgh

When Babcock left for the Leafs, the line of ascension was clear and Blashill will now coach the Red Wings.

“I might yell something”, Johan Franzen laughed.

The Maple Leafs topped the Sabres at the 11th hour, wooing Babcock with $50 million over eight years.

If DeKeyser is out for any length of time, the team has plenty of young talent looking to take his place in the lineup – but depending on how much time he’ll be out, the team will have a few decisions to make. The Red Wings promoted Jeff Blashill, the head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins, their AHL affiliate.

DeKeyser, 25, played in 80 games last season with 31 points (2 goals, 29 assists). They won the Stanley Cup in 2008 and lost in the Cup finals the following season. The Ferris alum will be taking over a Red Wings team who has made the playoffs the past 24 years and looks to keep that going in the 2015-2016 campaign.

Gustav Nyquist called Babcock an intense coach. I think theyre both going to get opportunities to play, not only the rest of the preseason but as we get into the beginning of the regular season.”. “Just every day practicing and before games, the level of preparation.

It will really only be four [games] at max really for most of the guys, maybe five, sometimes three so we’ll manage that part of it. I think guys have been around and know what they need to do to be ready so I’ll lean on them a little bit on how many they want to play so we’re sure that they can come into game one ready to go”, said Blashill. “I’d rather have a lot of great players at every position and I think we got two really good goalies”. “We’re excited to have Blash up here now”. The Wings made the best of the situation, having interested teams sign an agreement to give the Wings a third-round draft pick upon hiring Babcock.

“I think he helped me become a better pro and understand what it takes to be real good in this league”. That was a step up from what I was used to. I always come back to the preparation, the amount of time he spent on hockey. He spent a lot of time at the rink, but I dont think the off switch was off when he left the rink, so I think he puts a lot of his time on hockey.”. “I was able to go through playoff runs where unfortunately they were done but he was able to follow us and help me through a few of that process”, Blashill said. Then the last three years it was a really unique relationship that I got to have in the American League with the NHL head coach.

“We were on the phone a couple times a week”, Blashill added. “Very good friendship and ton of respect as a coach”.