Flyers Coaching Candidate: Jeff Blashill

As the Flyers continue their head coaching search, we know this: nobody has had a second interview with the team. We know that they have interviewed Barry Trotz and John Tortorella. Many other names are speculation or just hopeful wishes. One of the other candidates that the Flyers have interviewed is former Red Wings coach, Jeff Blashill. Does he deserve another look as a coaching candidate?

Blashill is one of those guys who never really made a splash in the hockey world as a player. He was a goalie at Ferris State University in Michigan. Before that, he played for the Des Moines Buccaneers in the USHL.

After he was done playing in college, he became an assistant coach at his alma mater. He got hired by Miami University (in Ohio, not Florida) to be their head coach. In 2008, he was tagged to be the head coach and GM of the Indiana Ice of the USHL and would capture the Clark Cup in his first season as coach.

Four years later, he was coaching the Detroit Red Wings’ AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. This came after a year he spent as an assistant coach to Mike Babcock in Detroit. In his first year with the Griffins, the team captured the Calder Cup. His teams at the AHL level were very competitive and when Babcock left the Red Wings to go to Toronto, Blashill was called up to the bigs in 2015.

From 1990-91 to 2015-16, the Red Wings were in the playoffs. They were a level of consistency that even Bill Belichick could only dream of. In Blashill’s first year as head coach, the Wings finished in third place in the Atlantic Division and were ousted in the playoffs in the first round to Tampa Bay.

In the years that followed, Detroit has become a shell of what it once was. Maybe moving from the Western Conference to the Eastern Conference hurt them. Either way, their best finish since then has been fifth place. This once vaunted team has struggled mightily. Whether it is due to poor players, bad drafting, bad personnel decisions, etc., this team is bad. The Red Wings stuck with Blashill through this time, but finally let him go at the end of this season.

Why He Should Be The Flyers Next Coach 

I’ll be honest with you. I’m grasping at straws with this one. He seems to be good with younger talent. Maybe giving him a shot at the AHL level would be better. Maybe he’d make a good assistant coach.

Why He Shouldn’t Be The Flyers Next Coach 

Detroit is one of those hockey meccas. Why did they stick with a coach through six years of missing the playoffs? In that time, the Flyers have had two head coaches and two interim ones. I want consistency for the Flyers, but not to be consistent cellar dwellers. They were one of the worst teams in the NHL in scoring, power play offense, and power play defense. These are issues the Flyers already struggle with.

Final Verdict

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, and just so we get a clear picture…..NO! In this series I’ve done here so far I’ve talked about candidates who could be good to who could be interesting selections that are out of the box. I haven’t talked about one who has had a track record that is this poor. If the Flyers didn’t interview him, I would never have talked about him. This is one candidate the Flyers should not call back under any circumstances.