The title of worst coach in Detroit Red Wings history belongs to Ned Harkness. To be fair, Harkness was among the most accomplished coaches in American collegiate sports, particularly in hockey and lacrosse.
At Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and Cornell University, he didn’t merely win—he built dynasties, capturing multiple NCAA championships and engineering the only perfect season in NCAA hockey history.
However, when he made the ambitious leap to the National Hockey League in 1970 to coach the storied Detroit Red Wings, the results were nothing short of catastrophic. What followed was not a seamless transition from college brilliance to professional success, but a spectacular unraveling—proof that even the most lauded résumé cannot guarantee credibility in a radically different arena.