REPORT: Red Wings Officially Announce Dan Bylsma As Assistant Coach

The rumours have been flying for weeks. For a while, it was unofficially official. This morning, it’s officially official. The Red Wings have announced that they’ve hired Dan Bylsma as an assistant coach.

The Michigan native has been around the league for more than a few years. He won the Jack Adams in 2011. In 2009, he coached the Pittsburgh Penguins to their first Stanley Cup in 17 seasons. All Red Wings fans remember that one. It still stings.

He took over the team from Michelle Therrien mid-season in 2008-09 and coached the team to a 18-3-4 record through his first 25 games. Since then, Bylsma spent two disastrous seasons with the Buffalo Sabres and was fired when rumours leaked that he wasn’t getting along with the players, including star center Jack Eichel.

Most recently, Bylsma was an assistant to Jeff Blashill at the World Hockey Championships where Team U.S.A. finished with a bronze medal.

The big question for Detroit’s next assistant is what he can do with the special teams as Detroit has hit historic lows on the power play in recent seasons. Bylsma’s track record in this department is good. With Pittsburgh in ’09, the team had a 19.6 power play percentage under Bylsma in the regular season. Through his two season in Buffalo, the Sabres had a 21.6 PP%. Those are very good results for a team that was atrocious at 5-on-5.

Bylsma is a coach with a very good special teams track record and a positive working relationship with head coach Jeff Blashill. This is a good get for the Red Wings.