DETROIT – The Detroit Red Wings introduced Jeff Blashill as their new head coach Tuesday.
Blashill, a Detroit native, replaces Mike Babcock, who coached the team for 10 years before accepting the Toronto Maple Leafs coaching job in May.
"I told Ken [Holland] a year ago, with Mike's uncertainty, if Mike were to leave Detroit, that the Red Wing job was the job I wanted the most of any of the NHL," Blashill said.
Blashill said he's proud to work with the players who have such a high caliber of work ethic, attention to detail and competitiveness.
"You can only win at the highest level, you can only win championships with great character and great talent. You can't have one or the other, you have to have both. Usually when you take a job, and I'm familiar with this, you're hoping that the group has great character. I don't have to hope at all. I know, I know firsthand because I've experienced it, This group that we have here oozes character," Blashill said. "I can't wait to go to work with this group in the fall."
Blashill, 41, has coached Detroit's minor league affiliate in Grand Rapids for the past three seasons, and he was an obvious candidate for the Red Wings once Babcock left. Red Wings general manager Ken Holland acknowledged right away that he was going to talk to Blashill about the job, but the Griffins made it to the conference finals in the AHL playoffs.
Blashill led Grand Rapids to the Calder Cup in 2013, his first season as a head coach in the pros.
Blashill and his wife, Erica, have three children -- Teddy, Owen and Josie.
Lately, Detroit has undergone a bit of a makeover, with younger players like Gustav Nyquist, Tomas Tatar and Petr Mrazek playing bigger roles as stars Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk show more signs of age. The Red Wings have advanced past the first round of the playoffs only once in the last four seasons. They lost to Tampa Bay in seven games in the opening round this year.