Bednar In, Cassidy Out

On June 9th, 2021, the Detroit Red Wings were faced with a decision: promote Jared Bednar to Head Coach or lose him to a mystery team. That decision would have to come at the cost of current Head Coach Bruce Cassidy, who had guided the Red Wings to a 39-29-14 record and an embarrassing 1st round sweep in the playoffs. Despite the lack of success in year 1, the front office still had faith in Cassidy. Bednar, on the other hand, was viewed as a rising star, and the organization was reluctant to lose him without giving him a shot.

Eventually, the Red Wings decided Bednar was a better fit for the roster and informed Cassidy that he wouldn't be returning for a 2nd season. Let's hope GM Evans made the right call this time. After a long run of stability with coach Q behind the bench, this will be the franchise's 4th head coach in the past 4 seasons. After firing Quenneville, Montgomery and Cassidy only lasted a year each after leading the team to a pair of first round thrashings.

GM Evans: "I think Jared Bednar is one of the best coaches in this league and will be for a long time. Jared brings more of an offensive style to the franchise than the previous two coaches we've had, and I hope that style will mesh better with our roster. In 19-20 we really improved our defense from the previous season, but just couldn't muster enough goals, and our defense broke down in the playoffs. In 20-21 we upped the offense by a bit, but not a ton, and sacrificed some defense to do so. In the playoffs we couldn't do either one. Anyone looking at this roster can see that a team led by Connor McDavid should be among the league leaders in offense... and that just simply wasn't the case this year. We need to score goals and improve our special teams play and I think Jared can help us on both fronts."

"I wish Bruce the best, he was a fine coach for us, and I would have loved to keep him in the organization too. I'm sure he'll do well in Carolina."

In another piece of news, Alex Killorn was traded back to the Vancouver Canucks in exchange for Jonah Gadjovich and a 2022 3rd round pick. Killorn had been acquired ahead of the 2020 draft along with a 2020 5th round pick (Leon Gawanke) for a late 2020 1st round pick (Justin Barron). He started out the year as a key piece of the top 6, but after missing 18 games due to an injury he never really re-found his game and ended up with a disappointing 12 goals and 28 points in 64 games. Gadjovich is a bit of a wildcard after putting up 15 goals in 19 AHL games this season and overall, the Wings were able to recoup comparable value from this failed acquisition. 

GM Evans: "Jonah reminds me a lot of Patrick Hornqvist; he is an absolute nightmare to play against. He goes to the net hard for dirty goals, he plays with some bite, and he's a colossal pain in the ass for the opponent. He needs to continue to work on his skating and passing, but I think he could be an impact player one day soon. I'm pretty happy with this move."

Shortly after this deal was closed, the Red Wings struck a deal with the Colorado Avalanche that saw Gallagher and Colorado's 2022 1st round pick with lotto protection sent to Detroit in exchange for Brock Nelson. If the 2022 1st becomes a top 5 pick it will remain with Colorado and they will send their 2023 1st to Detroit instead. Rumour has it Gallagher and Nelson will end up back on their original teams eventually, and this deal is related to Gallagher's pending UFA status.

Next up, the Wings are rumoured to be on the lookout for a high-end starting goalie to round out the roster.

-Detroit Free Press
June 11, 2021

Red Wings 21-22 Roster Outlook:

E Kane                 McDavid               E Lindholm
Hertl                     ROR                     A Svechnikov
Teravainen           Nelson                  T Pitlick
Bemstrom            Cozens                 Kakko
Spares: Gregor, Sorensen

Chabot                 Pionk
H Lindholm           Heiskanen
Hakanpaa            Marincin
Spares: Strand

Hart
Mrazek