On Monday morning, Detroit Red Wings General Manager, Steve Yzerman, announced that the team had hired Jay Varady as an assistant coach on Derek Lalonde’s staff.
The Red Wings have completely overhauled their coaching staff this offseason. Moving on from long-time head coach Jeff Blashill and hiring Derek Lalonde at the end of June, which in turn led to the hiring of Bob Boughner as Associate coach and Alex Westlund as goaltending coach a week later. Even with Boughner and Alex Tanguay behind the bench alongside Lalonde, the team still felt something missing from their staff.
Varady, 44, has spent the last four seasons within the Arizona Coyotes system, three out of those four years as the head coach of the Tucson Roadrunners of the American Hockey League. Before joining the Coyotes organization, Varady coached four seasons in the USHL with the Sioux City Musketeers and was named the USHL’s Coach of the Year in 2016-17. During 2018-19, Varady spent the year coaching the Kingston Frontenacs, leading them to the franchise’s first-ever berth into the Eastern Conference Final. Prior to coaching, Varady played four years at Union College, and was named captain of the team during his senior campaign.
Varady is viewed as an up-and-coming hockey mind who has a knack for developing young talent in every league he has coached. Whether that be Eeli Tolvanen in Sioux City, Jason Robertson in Kingston, or Barrett Hayton and Michael Bunting in Tucson. With rookies such as Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider looking to build off their strong 2021-22 campaigns and other young players such as Filip Zadina and Joe Veleno looking to take another step in their development, Varady could help with each of their development paths.
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