Reports have surfaced out of MLive that the Red Wings are expected to interview ex-Blue Jackets bench boss Todd Richards to fill their vacancy with assistant coaching:

The Red Wings are expected to talk to Todd Richards, the head coach for Team USA at the World Championship. He has more than five years of head coaching experience with the Minnesota Wild and Columbus Blue Jackets. Other potential candidates include former NHL head coaches Dave Cameron, Paul MacLean and Mike Yeo. Khan continues...

It appears that the Red Wings, and Jeff Blashill are really honing in on an assistant coach who has experience as a head coach. Todd Richards was fired from the Blue Jackets after a dismal 0-7 start this season, but as we all know, the Blue Jackets were not a good team this year. Prior to his departure in Columbus, Richards had done a decent job with what he was given. The Wings had announced on Wednesday that former NHL-er Doug Houda would be assuming the duties of working with the defense as assistant coach. The thought of the next hiring will be based around a coach who can bring a new point of view to the Red Wings struggling power-play and offensive attack.

Whichever way you look at it, the Red Wings are being very aggressive in filling the open spots in coaching. I was convinced that Pat Ferschweiler was going to stay behind the bench, but the team stuck him in the press box to follow the analytics. If you ask me, I think we'll be seeing a completely revitalized team next season in terms of systematics. All they need to do is make some key roster moves.