Nine days after the Red Wings’ head coach position opened up, a coaching heavyweight has become available.
In a stunning announcement Monday, the Islanders — one year removed from back-to-back runs to the Eastern Conference finals — fired head coach Barry Trotz.
Only two coaches in NHL history — Red Wings legend Scotty Bowman and Joel Quenneville — have won more games than Trotz, who also won the Stanley Cup in 2018 with the Capitals. Naturally, he figures to be a top candidate for nearly every coaching vacancy in the league this offseason.
Barry Trotz will take at least a week to collect his thoughts and ponder his next move. Will his NHL future feature a management role somewhere or back to coaching? TBD. @TSNHockey @TheAthletic
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) May 9, 2022
Don’t expect word to leak out of Fort Yzerman as to whether the Red Wings will be among those suitors. But the potential fit does make sense for a few reasons.
The Red Wings struggled mightily defensively this past season, giving up the second-most goals in the league, and Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman made clear at his end-of-season news conference last week he’s hoping a new coach can address that facet of the game.
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Trotz, certainly, would do just that: From 2018 to 2022, his Islanders teams gave up the second-fewest goals in the league (2.56 per game), second to only the Bruins in that span. That ranking dips a bit based on expected goals, as measured by Evolving Hockey, but the first three years of Trotz’s Islanders tenure nonetheless saw the team rank eighth in five-on-five expected goals against.
Even more impressive is how drastic a turnaround that was for New York. The year before Trotz took over, the Islanders were in fact the worst defensive team in the league, giving up 3.57 goals per game (and allowing the second-most expected goals at both five-on-five and overall, according to Evolving Hockey).
So that’s a big box checked for the Red Wings, right away.
Yzerman also spoke on the Stoney and Jansen show last week about looking for a coach who would “push and demand of our players.” That’s probably not as revealing as it might seem — there are a lot of ways to be demanding — but it’s clear Trotz has gotten the absolute most out of his rosters in New York. This past season didn’t go well, likely playing a role in his firing, but last year his Islanders took the eventual-champion Lightning to seven games in the Eastern Conference finals after taking them to six games in the same round the year before. That’s with a roster that, based on talent alone, may not have ranked in the league’s top 10 on paper.
It’s not unheard of for a team to get hot in the playoffs and outperform their talent — hello, 2020 Dallas and 2021 Montreal — but doing it back-to-back showed it was no fluke for the Islanders. And coaching almost certainly was a big reason why. The Islanders had an identity.
So, yes, Barry Trotz would be an outstanding hire for the Red Wings. He even checks the peripheral box of having some experience working with Yzerman, having served as an assistant coach for Canada’s world championship team in 2013, when Yzerman was general manager.
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But Trotz would be a great hire for virtually any other team, too, which is where the fit is a little more dicey.
The Red Wings do have a lot of desirable elements in attracting a new coach. They have some young, foundational building blocks in place and more on the way. Detroit is an excellent hockey market, with great fans and loads of history. And the general manager likely has more security than any other rebuilding GM, which matters in a league where change at the top can often have significant ripple effects.
However, Trotz’s reputation is first and foremost as a winner, and the Red Wings may not be in a position to win right away. Trotz’s experience with the Islanders — taking them from the bottom 10 to the playoffs in his first season — is evidence that he can engineer big turnarounds (something Detroit would surely find appealing). But at the same time, there are other rosters out there better positioned for a big leap right away.
One, that currently has a vacancy, is in his hometown of Winnipeg, where the Jets have a very talented forward group and a Vezina-winning goaltender already in place. Their defense corps is another matter — but again, Trotz can probably help there.
Another, which does not currently have a vacancy, but has shown a willingness to make sudden change in its short lifespan: Vegas, which missed the playoffs after trading for Jack Eichel but still has an extraordinarily talented roster.
There’s also the big market glitz of Chicago, a nearby opening within the division in Philadelphia, and who knows what else happens as teams begin getting eliminated from the playoffs this week.
Being one of the best, most proven coaches in the sport comes with options. And it’s not clear where Detroit will ultimately stand among them in the big picture.
But what does look obvious, even just hours after he’s become available, is that Trotz would check a lot of important boxes for the Red Wings.
(Photo: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)