The Chicago Blackhawks removed Jeremy Colliton from his position as head coach yesterday, meaning they are now dealing with interim hires at the general manager and coaching positions. Kyle Davidson is serving as interim GM after Stan Bowman’s resignation, while Derek King who had been with the Rockford IceHogs is taking over behind the bench for the time being. Today, both men spoke with the media and Davidson explained to reporters including Mark Lazerus of The Athletic that the organization will not hire a new coach until after this season is completed. He believes it will allow for a more thorough search, giving the Blackhawks access to all available candidates.
Davidson will add an assistant to the current coaching staff at some point, though he noted that King will be leaning heavily on Marc Crawford during this transition. Crawford was not let go with the rest of the previous staff.
The Blackhawks have gone through a complete overhaul to hockey leadership over the last few weeks and are now 1-9-2 on the season after another embarrassing loss on Friday night. The team has allowed 47 goals through their first 12 games, second only to the Arizona Coyotes for worst in the league. This comes after an offseason with several blockbuster acquisitions, including Seth Jones and Marc-Andre Fleury. Jones cost the organization a substantial package of future assets and was signed to an eight-year, $76MM contract by Bowman in July.
Davidson noted that he “is not Stan” and that there will likely be philosophical differences in how he runs the team moving forward. He has the support of ownership and full power of the general manager position, even if he is still carrying the interim tag for the time being.
Delaying the coaching search until the offseason means that King will have control of the Blackhawks for the remaining 70 games, his first NHL coaching opportunity. A veteran of more than 800 games as a player, King had been the head coach of the IceHogs since partway through the 2018-19 season, taking over when Colliton was promoted to the NHL job. He had previously been an assistant coach with the Toronto Marlies and Owen Sound Attack.
So they’ve already given up on the season? I’m sorry but Derek King is not the answer for this club. They should focus on hiring a new GM (Jeff Gorton seems an obvious choice to me) and have his first mandate be to hire a new head coach.
They’re 1-9-2. The season is OVER manos. They gave up when they let that incompetent keep the job for as long as they did. They’re D-men are the worst, even with all the talent which means the coaches scheme stinks, or the players just aren’t listening which means he had no control. As far as the other team scoring less than 30 seconds into like 9 games, just means they weren’t prepared to play at all. Lot of horrible decisions here. Gustafson stunk last time he was here, and he was a FA and NOBODY wanted him and he’s back. Let the kids play as long as they stink and get some experience. You can’t do anything at this point until Kane and Toews albatross contracts run out, or the cap jumps like 20 million, or when Pigs fly.
I disagree. Lets say they go 12-4 in your next 16 games. You are at .500 and go from there. However I think the organization needs to figure out what they want to be moving forward and it is going to take time. Plus who is going to want and coach midyear that is worth a damn. Most new coaches would want training camp to figure things out.
12-4? I’ll take whatever you’re smokin and raise you t0 16-0. As long as we’re stoned. Wow
Nothing to lose…give Edzo another shot.
This whole organization needs a good powerwash.
Absolutely.
They need to dig up Bob Pulford.
He’s still alive.
This is the price you pay for winning 3 Stanley Cups and creating a “Salary Cap Hell” situation by rewarding (paying) your top guys who won you the Cup. Get used to being NHL bottom feeders for a while all of you Blackhawk fans, as it will take years to recover from this self imposed mess.
We’ll take the 3 cups…
Hawks need to be a Zero Bowman Team again. The sooner the better.
Scotty is still with them.
Exactly my point.