Toronto Maple Leafs add ex-Red Wings head coach to staff

The Toronto Maple Leafs are adding a bit of NHL experience to their coaching staff.

Today, they announced that they’d hired Derek Lalonde as an assistant coach, who most recently worked as the Detroit Red Wings head coach for parts of three seasons before his midseason departure this past year.

Lalonde was fired in December 2024, with Todd McLellan taking over as his replacement. During his time in Detroit, his only NHL head coaching gig to date, he went 89-86-23 in 198 games over the course of three seasons.

“Incredibly thankful Steve Yzerman gave me a chance to coach a team like the Detroit Red Wings,” Lalonde had told Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman at the time of his departure. “You saw the passion of the fanbase when we made a late run last season, and they will be rewarded. They will be in a good spot, with the great young players they have and the ones that are coming.”

Lalonde had most recently been active in the media space himself, working for Sportsnet in the early rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Lalonde had previously served as an assistant for the Tampa Bay Lightning, winning Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021, as well as being the head coach for the AHL’s Iowa Wild, ECHL’s Toledo Walleye, and USHL’s Green Bay Gamblers.

As an assistant, Lalone worked at the University of Denver, Ferris State University,  Hamilton College, and Lebanon Valley College before landing his first head coaching gig in the USHL. He began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts.

Unlike many NHL coaches, Lalonde did not play in the league himself. A goaltender, he played 41 games for SUNY Cortland from 1991–95.

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