The Tampa Bay Lightning have hired Ferris State University hockey alum Jeff Blashill as assistant coach as announced today by the franchise's vice president and general manager Julien BriseBois.
Blashill will join head coach Jon Cooper's staff,, which includes assistant coaches Jeff Halpern and Rob Zettler along with goaltender coach Frantz Jean and video coaches Nigel Kirwan and Brian Garlock. The Lightning have made three consecutive appearances in the Stanley Cup finals and won back-to-back championships in 2020 and 2021 before finishing as the league's runner-up this past year.
Most recently, Blashill, 48, served as the head coach of the Detroit Red Wings for seven seasons from 2015-16 to 2021-22, where he compiled an overall record of 204-261-72 in 537 regular season games along with one postseason stint in his first season in 2016, falling in an Eastern Conference Quarterfinal to the Lightning in five games.
Prior to taking over as Detroit's head coach, Blashill served three seasons as the head coach of the Red Wings' American Hockey League affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins, where he advanced to the playoffs in all three seasons and won the first Calder Cup championship in franchise history in his first season with the Griffins in 2013. He was awarded the Louis A. R. Pieri Memorial Award as the AHL's most outstanding coach in 2013-14 after guiding the Griffins to a 46-win season, and he compiled an overall mark of 134-71-23 during his tenure in Grand Rapids.
Blashill also served as an assistant coach with the Red Wings for one season in 2011-12, was the head coach of Western Michigan University in 2010-11 and was the main bench boss for the Indiana Ice of the United States Hockey League for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 seasons, winning a Clark Cup championship with the Ice in his first season with the organization.
Originally from Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, Blashill also served as an assistant coach at Miami (Ohio) University (2002-03 to 2007-08) and Ferris State University (1999-00 to 2001-02). He played goaltender collegiately at Ferris State, where he compiled a 27-36-5 record with two shutouts over 78 games during his four-year career. He was the Bulldogs' Rookie of the Year in 1994-95, earned a spot on the CCHA All-Academic Team in 1996-97 and won Ferris State's President's Award in three-consecutive years for having the highest grade-point average on the Bulldogs.
Prior to his collegiate career, Blashill played junior hockey for the Des Moines Buccaneers of the USHL from 1991-94 and helped the team to the Clark Cup in 1992, one of only two people in USHL history to win the Clark Cup as both a player and a head coach.
Blashill's appointment fills the void on Cooper's staff in Tampa Bay created with the departure of Derek Lalonde, another former Ferris State assistant coach who was appointed as the Detroit Red Wings' head coach last week.
