The Red Wings have filled out their coaching staff, naming Bill Peters and Jeff Blashill as the new assistant coaches for Mike Babcock.  Peters is the former head coach of the Rockford IceHogs, the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks.  In his two seasons with the IceHogs, Peters led them to over 40 wins a season and to the Caulder Cup playoffs in both seasons.  Peters and Babcock have a history of working together, as Peters got his first hockey operations job as a scout for the Spokane Chiefs.  He later joined the coaching staff under the leadership of Babcock and three years later returned to be the head man of the Chiefs.

Jeff Blashill was the former head coach of the Western Michigan Broncos for only one season, but it was one of the most successful years in the history of WMU hockey.  The Broncos finished in the top four of the CCHA, along with making the CCHA Championship game and reaching the National Championship tournament.  Before becoming the head man at Western, Blashill was an assistant at Ferris State and Miami University along with being the head coach and GM of the Indiana Ice.  The Ice are a Tier 1 Junior team, and in Blashill’s first season won the USHL Championship.

Potential between the pipes

Joey MacDonald just resigned with the Wings with a two-year contract as the team’s third goaltender.  The first season of the deal is a two-way contract, meaning he can go from the Red Wings to the Grand Rapids Griffins without having to pass through waivers.  But the big news is how close the Wings were to signing free agent goaltender Tomas Vokoun.  According to an interview in the Czech Republic, Vokoun said the finalists for his services were the Capitals and the Red Wings.  Vokoun says it had nothing to do with money and GM Ken Holland says that he is still looking for a goalie and, “Some of the goalie we talked to didn’t want to be a backup.”