DETROIT -- The Red Wings are ready to usher in a new era. The team has called an 11 a.m. ET news conference Tuesday morning, when it is expected they will announce Jeff Blashill as the club's new head coach, a source confirmed to ESPN.com.
Blashill has been the odds-on favorite since the departure of long-time coach Mike Babcock, who recently signed an eight-year $50 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs.
The 41-year-old Blashill has been groomed as Babcock's successor and recently led the club's farm team in the American Hockey League, the Grand Rapids Griffins, to the Western Conference finals of the Calder Cup playoffs.
Blashill, who previously served as an assistant coach to Babcock during the 2011-12 season, also led the Griffins to a Calder Cup championship in 2013.
The former college hockey coach -- Blashill was a head coach at Western Michigan University and an assistant at both Ferris State and Miami University -- has been regarded as one of the most promising up-and-coming coaches to rise up through the AHL ranks. As ESPN previously reported, a handful of teams requested to interview Blashill for vacancies last summer, but the Red Wings were intent on holding on to him as a potential replacement for Babcock, with Babcock's contract expiring in July 2015.