Early on Friday, June 6th, the Toronto Maple Leafs hired Derick Lalonde as an assistant coach for the upcoming NHL season.
With Lane Lambert's recent move to Seattle to be the bench boss of the Kraken, an assistant coach role opened up for the Leafs. Enter Lalonde, a two-time Stanley Cup Champion and former head coach of the Detroit Red Wings.
While Lalonde's record as a head coach is mediocre at best, his experience and success as an assistant coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning is quite impressive.
Let's get into Lalonde's coaching career and what this means for the Toronto Maple Leafs going forward.
Lalonde bounced around coaching in the NCAA and USHL for almost 20 years before becoming the Head Coach of the ECHL's Toledo Walleye in 2014-15.
In his inaugural ECHL season, Lalonde won Coach of the Year after leading the Walleye to the best record in the league's regular season. Lalonde later became Head Coach of the AHL's Iowa Wild from 2016-18, then landing his first gig in the NHL the following season.
His career started to take off when he joined the 2018-19 Tampa Bay Lightning. Lalonde began his NHL coaching career an assistant to the Lightning's Jon Cooper, one of the greatest coaches in NHL history.
Over Lalonde's time with the Lightning from 2018-2022, the Bolts were the most successful team in the NHL, with Lalonde earning two Stanley Cup rings along the way.
At the end of the 2021-22 season, Lalonde was hired by the Detroit Red Wings to be their head coach. In his time in Detroit, Lalonde had a middling record of 89-86-23, coming close to the playoffs twice, but never qualifying. He was fired by the team in December, 2024.
Overall, I love this hiring by the Maple Leafs. Lalonde may not have had tons of success as a head coach, but he did what he could with a very average Red Wings roster that hasn't seen the playoffs since 2016.
His time as an assistant coach speaks for itself, two cups and three trips to the finals in four years is more than impressive.
This is a great hire for the Leafs, and Lalonde will only benefit this team going forward.