After a shake-up of the coaching staff that saw Tony Granato leave for Wisconsin, Pat Ferschweiler get bumped up to the press box, and the non-renewal of 18-year goalie coach Jim Bedard’s contract, the Red Wings have filled one of those holes today.
UPDATE: #RedWings Name Doug Houda Assistant Coach.
Story: https://t.co/YaYhNdaSX4 pic.twitter.com/vHAMGMlRu4
— Detroit Red Wings (@DetroitRedWings) May 10, 2016
Doug Houda spent his first stint as an assistant with the Rochester Americans from 2004-2006. Since then, he has been with the Boston Bruins drawing X’s and O’s with head coach Claude Julien for nine of his ten years as bench boss. For his first eight seasons, he worked with the defensemen and power-play units and averaged an 18% rating working with the man advantage with the team placing in the top-5 twice and bottom 20 four times in that span. The last two seasons, he has been working with the defensemen only, a group that allowed an average of 30 shots per game against the last two seasons.
“Doug Houda is a great coach. The players love him.”
-Don Sweeney, Bruins General Manager
A second-round pick of the Wings in 1984, the former defenseman logged 561 games for the Detroiters, Hartford Whalers, LA Kings, New York Islanders, Anaheim (Mighty) Ducks, and Buffalo Sabres, scoring 19 goals and 82 points but known more for his fists. He logged 1104 penalty minutes in the NHL and 1,191 more in the AHL, where he played in 550 additional games for the Adironack Red Wings and Rochester Americans, where he won a Calder Cup in 1996 with the latter.
To the Wings Houda brings a familiar face to the organization whose role has been determined, working with the defense and penalty killers. The unit, though finishing in the top 15 multiple times, has not finished in the top ten since the 2009-10 season. It was largely inconsistent this past season before a late-season surge pushed it to 14th at a 81.5%.
With Houda signed to a three-year contract, the search led by Ken Holland and Jeff Blashill will continue for a new goalie coach and second assistant that will work with the forwards and power play.
Stats courtesy of NHL.com, HockeyDB
Quote courtesy of Boston Herald
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