Redder Winger
Registered User
- May 4, 2017
- 3,700
- 730
I don't think the waiting mattered at all for Detroit. Everyone and their mother's best friend knew Blashill was the next guy in Detroit. He worked under babs for a year, then got experience running a pro team in G.R. As soon as he won that Calder Cup it was decided. Also I remember several teams looking at Blashill the year before he got the Detroit job, and Holland extended him, to a very nice deal, with the assumption that if Babs left he got the big team. At that time Detroit looked good. They had prepped for Babs departure, with a guy who had won at every level.
All that said the team was going down either way. The only thing that would have saved it would have been if Nyquist really was the superstar scorer he showed signs of being when the goose cage got all sorts of messed up. and even then this defense wasn't going to get fixed without a major move.
I get your point, but you can't say it was decided, because it still all hinged on Babcock.
Are we really supposed to believe Blashill was viewed as the 2nd best coach in the world?