As he does each week, Elliotte Friedman offered his thoughts on the latest happenings from around the NHL in his 30 Thoughts feature over at Sportsnet. In this week’s edition, he touched on the future of Red Wings’ head coach Jeff Blashill and whether or not he’ll be back for next season.

After missing the playoffs for the first time in 25 years it made sense that people would speculate on the future of head coach Jeff Blashill. Not only was he the bench boss for the worst Red Wings season in a quarter century, he’s played hardball with some of his young, hungry rookies. He’s healthy scratched Anthony Mantha and Andreas Athanasiou at different points this season, despite them being team leaders in point production. Just recently, Athanasiou has been benched for what Blashill has described as a lack to engage in one-on-one battles. That being said, none of us are in the dressing room therefore we don’t know what kind of attitudes or work ethic the young guns display off the ice and in practice. Most likely, Blashill is attempting to instill in them the hard working, never-give-up culture that has been at the heart of Hockeytown for the last twenty-five years and made the franchise so successful. So while some might think a coaching change makes sense, there’s definitely a case to be made for giving Blashill a little more rope, especially considering the run of injuries and personnel changes the Wings have seen in the last year.

When asked about Blashill’s future, Ken Holland said:

Blashill has won at almost every level of hockey. He’s certainly earned his shot with an NHL club and, as Friedman says in his article, teams were starting to take notice.

If you take Ken Holland at his word it would seem like a safe bet that there won’t be any changes behind the bench heading into next season. Do you think bringing Blashill back for another year is the right choice? What do you think, Wings fans?