DETROIT -- The Detroit Red Wings will have a different look behind the bench next season, after losing their second assistant coach in less than a month.

Paul MacLean has been hired as the head coach of the Ottawa Senators, leaving Detroit with two assistant coaching vacancies.

Head coach Mike Babcock has been talking to several candidates, some of whom are waiting to see if they can land NHL head-coaching jobs. New Jersey, Minnesota, Dallas and Winnipeg are seeking head coaches.

"There’s lots of qualified candidates, people who have been in the industry as assistant coaches, people who have been head coaches," general manager Ken Holland said. "Mike Babcock brings names to me. I’ll sign off on whoever Mike wants on his staff."

Detroit’s list likely includes former NHL head coaches Todd Richards (Minnesota) and Pete DeBoer (Florida), who were fired after the season.

Ken Hitchcock is perhaps the most prominent coach still available. But considering his accomplished career as a head coach (he won the Stanley Cup with Dallas in 1999), he might not settle for an assistant coaching job.

Gerard Gallant and Bob Boughner, a pair of former Red Wings draft picks, could be in the mix.

Gallant guided Saint John to the Memorial Cup championship this past season and was named the Canadian Hockey League coach of the year. He spent parts of three seasons as head coach of the Columbus Blue Jackets. He was a scrappy, high-scoring left wing for nine seasons in Detroit.

Boughner, who resigned in May after one season as an assistant coach in Columbus, led Windsor to a pair of Memorial Cup titles as a head coach. The former hard-nosed defenseman was Detroit’s second-round pick in 1989, but never played for the Red Wings.

MacLean, 53, had been an assistant under Babcock the past six seasons in Detroit and two years before that in Anaheim, where he also worked for current Senators GM Bryan Murray.

This will be MacLean’s first NHL head-coaching job. He is expected to be introduced at a news conference on Tuesday. The Senators missed the playoffs in 2010-11, going 32-40-10.

MacLean has extensive head coaching experience in the minor leagues, spending six seasons in the now-defunct IHL with the Peoria Rivermen and Kansas City Blades. He also was the head coach of the UHL’s Quad City Mallards, leading that club to the championship in 2000-01.

The Red Wings parted ways with assistant coach Brad McCrimmon last month. He was hired as head coach of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League.