The Detroit Red Wings fired coach Derek Lalonde on Thursday and named Todd McLellan as his replacement, a major change by general manager Steve Yzerman more than a third of the way through another disappointing season in the place known as “Hockeytown.”
The move the day after Christmas comes with the Red Wings on a three-game skid and having lost nine of their past 12. They've lost 21 of their first 34 games this season and are above only the lowly Buffalo Sabres in the Eastern Conference.
Lalonde was nearly midway through his third season with Detroit after winning the Stanley Cup twice as an assistant with Tampa Bay. Yzerman inherited Jeff Blashill as coach when he left the Lightning for the Red Wings in 2019 and hired Lalonde in the summer of 2022 with the goal of getting the team back in the playoffs.
Despite signing three-time Stanley Cup champion Patrick Kane in 2023 and re-signing him last offseason, the success has not approached the Red Wings’ glory days when they won the Cup four times between 1996-97 and 2007-08 — three times with Yzerman as captain and once with him working in the front office. Instead, their playoff drought is on track to reach a ninth year — second-longest in the league behind Buffalo.
Associate coach Bob Boughner was also fired and Trent Yawney hired to work on McLellan’s staff as an assistant. McLellan signed a multiyear contract to start his fourth NHL head coaching job after stints with San Jose, Edmonton and Los Angeles.
McLellan, 57, coached his team to the playoffs in nine of the 14 full seasons he was in charge behind the bench. He returns to the Motor City after getting his first job in the league as a Red Wings assistant in 2005 and serving under coach Mike Babcock on the 2008 title run.
The Melville, Saskatchewan, native was hired by the Sharks just after and led them on three trips to the West final. Most recently, McLellan was fired by the Kings in February during the All-Star break and interviewed for other vacancies since.
This is the fourth coaching change around the NHL this season and 15th this calendar year, counting Rick Bowness' retirement in Winnipeg. The Boston Bruins in November fired Jim Montgomery, who was hired by the St. Louis Blues less than a week later, and the Chicago Blackhawks replaced Luke Richardson with Anders Sorensen in early December.
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FILE - Los Angeles Kings head coach Todd McLellan watches his team's NHL hockey game against the San Jose Sharks in Los Angeles, Nov. 25, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Owen Baker, File)
Detroit Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde talks to his players during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Montreal Canadiens, Friday, Dec. 20, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)
Detroit Red Wings head coach Derek Lalonde, standing, watches during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the St. Louis Blues, Monday, Dec. 23, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Jose Juarez)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea’s opposition-controlled National Assembly voted Friday to impeach acting President Han Duck-soo despite vehement protests by governing party lawmakers, further deepening the country’s political crisis set off by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment.
Han’s impeachment means he will be stripped of the powers and duties of the president until the Constitutional Court decides whether to dismiss or reinstate him. The court is already reviewing whether to uphold Yoon's earlier impeachment. The impeachments of the country’s top two officials worsen its political turmoil, deepen its economic uncertainty and hurt its international image.
The single-chamber National Assembly passed Han’s impeachment motion with a 192-0 vote. Lawmakers with the governing People Power Party boycotted the vote and gathered around the podium where assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik was seated and shouted that the vote was “invalid” and demanded Woo's resignation. No violence or injuries were reported.
The PPP lawmakers protested after Woo called for a vote on Han’s impeachment motion after announcing its passage required a simple majority in the 300-memer assembly, not a two-thirds majority as claimed by the PPP. Most South Korean officials can be impeached by the National Assembly with a simple majority vote, but a president’s impeachment needs the support of two-thirds. There are no specific laws on the impeachment of an acting president.
Han’s powers will be officially suspended when copies of his impeachment document are delivered to him and the Constitutional Court. The deputy prime minister and finance minister, Choi Sang-mok, will take over.
Han, who was appointed prime minister by Yoon, became acting president after Yoon, a conservative, was impeached by the National Assembly about two weeks ago over his short-lived Dec. 3 imposition of martial law. Han quickly clashed with the main liberal opposition Democratic Party as he pushed back against opposition-led efforts to fill three vacant seats on the Constitutional Court, establish an independent investigation into Yoon’s martial law decree and legislate pro-farmer bills.
At the heart of the fighting is the Democratic Party’s demand that Han approve the assembly's nominations of three new Constitutional Court justices to restore its full nine-member bench ahead of its ruling on Yoon’s impeachment. That’s a politically sensitive issue because a court decision to dismiss Yoon as president needs support from at least six justices, and adding more justices will likely increase the prospects for Yoon’s ouster. Yoon’s political allies in the governing People Power Party oppose the appointment of the three justices, saying Han shouldn’t exercise the presidential authority to make the appointments while Yoon has yet to be formally removed from office.
On Thursday, Han said he wouldn’t appoint the justices without bipartisan consent. The Democratic Party, which holds a majority in the assembly, submitted an impeachment motion against Han and passed bills calling for the appointment of three justices.
South Korean investigative agencies are probing whether Yoon committed rebellion and abuse of power with his marital law decree. His defense minister, police chief and several other senior military commanders have already been arrested over the deployment of troops and police officers to the National Assembly, which prompted a dramatic standoff that ended when lawmakers managed to enter the chamber and voted unanimously to overrule Yoon’s decree.
South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top, speaks as lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against the country's acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest to South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top left, during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party protest to South Korea's National Assembly Speaker Woo Won Shik, top center, during a plenary session for the impeachment motion against South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, Friday Dec. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
South Korean acting President Han Duck-soo speaks at the government complex in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2024. (Choi Jae-koo/Yonhap via AP)
