Oddsmaker favors Sergei Fedorov as next coach of Detroit Red Wings

BetOnline had Sergei Fedorov at 7/2 odds Wednesday, ahead of NHL coaching veterans Peter DeBoer (4/1), Bruce Cassidy (9/2) and Barry Trotz (6/1), among others.

Sportsbetting.ag also released odds and likewise favored Fedorov at +350, ahead of DeBoer (+400), Cassidy (+450) and Trotz (+600).

Fedorov would certainly be a bold choice by Steve Yzerman, who is making his first head coaching hire since being named general manager in April 2019. The position opened April 30, when Yzerman informed Jeff Blashill would not be retained. 

Since hanging up his skates in 2012, Fedorov has served five seasons as GM of CSKA Moscow, transitioning to coaching the KHL team last season. He also was an assistant coach with Russia at the 2022 Winter Olympics.

Fedorov is one of the all-time Wings greats, and had he not left as a free agent in 2003, his No. 91 almost certainly would be hanging from the rafters at Little Caesars Arena. Fedorov rejected a five-year, $50 million extension offer made to him in person by owner Mike Ilitch, opting to chase the Southern California lifestyle he craved by signing with the Anaheim Ducks.

The Ducks traded him to Columbus after a little more than two seasons, and Fedorov finished his NHL career playing for the Washington Capitals. He was booed soundly when he'd appear at Joe Louis Arena; it wasn't until after his 2015 induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame that relations with fans and Wings ownership were soothed. 

Yzerman runs a tight-lipped program, and he hasn't made any comments on his coaching search since May 2. At that time, he said he was wide-open to candidates, including European ones. No European has been hired as an NHL head coach since Chicago’s Alpo Suhonen and Pittsburgh’s Ivan Hlinka in 2001. Suhonen lasted one season; Hlinka coached the Penguins to the 2001 Eastern Conference final before he was fired four games into 2001-02.

It would make for a historic hire: In January, Yzerman hired Nicklas Lidstrom to serve as a vice president of hockey operations. Fedorov and Lidstrom date to the amazing 1989 draft, when the Wings got Lidstrom in the third round, Fedorov in the fourth (and Vladimir Konstantinov in the 11th). 

Yzerman's history with the Tampa Bay Lightning, though, shows a predilection for fishing guys out of the minors, hiring Guy Boucher and Jon Cooper from AHL affiliates.

If that's how Yzerman is leaning this time, the list of candidates includes Derek Lalonde, an assistant coach during Yzerman's last year with the Lightning; Mike Vellucci, a Farmington native who also has coached in the AHL and as an assistant with the Pittsburgh Penguins; Marco Sturm (Los Angeles Kings) and Spencer Carberry (Toronto Maple Leafs). BetOnline has Velucci at 11/1 and Lalonde at 12/1.