The Red Wings failed to make the Stanley Cup Playoffs in six of Blashill's seven seasons as coach. The 48-year-old was the second longest-tenured coach in the NHL behind Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning (10 seasons).
"I think as a team we had fundamentally, I don't know if plateaued is the right word, but we had gotten to a point where fundamentally without the puck we had regressed," Detroit general manager Steve Yzerman said. "I felt like we need to see if bringing in a new coach and a new coaching staff can make a difference.
"Jeff did an outstanding job of leading this organization in very, very difficult circumstances. I've said this before, but you can't judge Jeff Blashill on his Detroit Red Wings record. You have to judge him on how he ran this program and conducted himself in an extremely professional way. It is really unfair to put all of this on him.
Blashill was 204-261-72, ranking sixth in Red Wings history in wins and fifth in games coached (537). He was named coach June 9, 2015, replacing Mike Babcock, who left for the same position with the Toronto Maple Leafs on May 20, 2015.
In his first season, Detroit qualified for the playoffs but lost to Tampa Bay in five games in the Eastern Conference First Round. The Red Wings have not qualified or finished higher than fifth in their division since then.
They were 32-40-10 this season and finished sixth in the Atlantic Division, 26 points out of a playoff spot.
Detroit ranked 25th in the NHL in goals per game (2.77), 31st in goals-against per game (3.78), 26th on the power play (16.3 percent) and last on the penalty kill (73.8 percent).
"I was pleased with our record in the first half of the season, but having said that, our record was not good against the top teams," Yzerman said. "We were fairly competitive against the teams that are comparable in the standings, but as the season went on, the schedule had more of those elite teams. You combine the tougher schedule, you start losing players to injury, and the losses started mounting and particularly the ugly losses. That's what makes you more inclined to look for a coach that has a background with working well on improving defenses."
Assistant coach Doug Houda and goaltending coach Jeff Salajko also will not return next season.
