General manager Ken Holland had been hinting at it for months, and now it is official: The Red Wings are bringing back head coach Jeff Blashill next season on a two-year contract extension that was announced Tuesday.



Blashill is the seventh-longest-tenured head coach in the NHL, despite the fact his first four years in Detroit have been largely filled with losses. After making the playoffs in 2015-16, his first season as head coach, the Red Wings haven’t been back since. This year, at 31-38-10, they are near the bottom of the league’s standings. Blashill’s overall record with Detroit is 135-143-47.



But even with that contrast from the franchise’s storied, winning history, it has been clear for a long time what Blashill’s first term needed to be about. The roster was in decline when he took over in 2015, and even if Detroit didn’t dive head-first into its rebuild immediately, Blashill was essentially put in charge of the bench while...