A special thank you goes to Visions Federal Credit Union for partnering with us to provide the greater Cortland County community with additional sports coverage
Derek Lalonde, head coach of the NHL's Detroit Red Wings. (Photo provided by the Detroit Red Wings).
USA Hockey recently added a National Hockey League (NHL) head coach with Cortland connections.
Derek Lalonde, a SUNY Cortland Class of 1995 graduate, was named an assistant coach of the USA men’s national hockey team, announced by USA Hockey.
Lalonde – along with NHL coaches Scott Gordon, Ryan Warsofsky, Thomas Speer, Mike King and Nick Gialdini – will all coach the men’s national team at the IIHF International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) world championship from May 12 to 28 in Tampere, Finland, and Riga, Latvia. David Quinn is the head coach.
(Photo via USA Hockey)
Lalonde is coming off his first season as head coach of the Detroit Red Wings. He led the team to a 35-37-10 record, an improvement from the 2021-22 season by a handful of games.
A college and professional hockey coach since 2002, Lalonde was an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2018 to 2022. He won back-to-back Stanley Cups with the Lightning in 2020 and 2021.
A native of Brasher Falls, Lalonde was a goaltender for the SUNY Cortland men’s hockey team from 1991 to 1995. In his four seasons with the Red Dragons, Lalonde had a 3.93 goals-against average and 0.877 save percentage in 41 appearances.
A special thank you goes to Visions Federal Credit Union for partnering with us to provide the greater Cortland County community with additional sports coverage
