Chicago Blackhawks Fire Jeremy Colliton
The axe has finally fallen. The Chicago Blackhawks have relieved Jeremy Colliton of his responsibilities as head coach.
The Hawks also fired assistant coaches Tomas Mitell and Sheldon Brookbank. Marc Crawford will remain on the staff, but will not be taking over as the head coach.
Derek King will be promoted from Rockford to serve as the interim head coach. Acting general manager Kyle Davidson pulled the trigger on firing Colliton. Anders Sorensen has been elevated to the head coach position in Rockford.
The Blackhawks have relieved Jeremy Colliton, Tomas Mitell and Sheldon Brookbank of their coaching duties and have named Derek King Interim Head Coach, effective immediately. https://t.co/2PggeNtIY4
— Chicago Blackhawks (@NHLBlackhawks) November 6, 2021
Yes Yes Yes YES!!!!!
Needed to be done, but won’t make much of a difference. This is not a good hockey team.
Finally! Good riddance.
the hospice death watch is finally over: RIP coach
what are the Vegas odds on him every getting a head nhl job again?
I bet the players play hard and well Sunday night
so this is the first day of the total rebuild! praise the lord and pass the bourbon cause it will be a while..
Why disrupt the Hogs by bringing up King? Why not just have Crawford take over for the interim? This organization is as incompetent as the Bears.
They say ” GOOD THINGS COME TO THOSE THAT WAIT ” So, with as long as we have waited this must be a ” GREAT THING ” !!!!!!! ABOUT __ __ __ __ ING TIME !!!!!!! May I suggest a guy I heard about that I know is available & THEY CALL HIM Q !!!!!!!
Like King as interim, keeps coaching options open after the season. Looking more like Davidson could be next Gm.
Good move but u cant motive players with no skill besides kane we have shit love our captain but its time to find retirement and dach was a waste of first round pick complete garbage
I’m hoping this doesn’t mean Davidson is going to stay on as the new GM.
The Bowman tree isn’t one to write home about.
As I said on my last post, you start with the GM. The hawks like bring back former personnel, what about a guy named Tallon? I doubt if he would take the job after how he was treated? As for Q, will he ever be allowed to coach again in the NHL? What was the deal with the Comish? Q is not a builder! I would look for an NHL assistant that is the real coach (doing all the work) behind an entrenched (if there is such a thing) head coach.
H A L L E L U J A H ! ! !
Very happy human here!! No matter what the players were saying they have to be ecstatic by this move. Maybe they can just play hockey now without the Colliton nonsense.
You never want to be the guy that replaces a legend. But you do want to be the guy that replaces the guy that replaced the legend!
Why not Crawford? This team needs a coach with NHL head coaching experience. Maybe the baggage from Crawford’s past was more than they felt comfortable with as the face of the franchise at this point. That is understandable, but is this another NHL coach in training? That didn’t work out so well last time. It is clear that this is interim, but if they want to salvage the season (maybe they have calculated that as an impossibility), you’d think they’d want to have a coach that gives them the best chance of winning from game one. Is that King?
Other thoughts: Maybe they have a good idea of a permanent coach already and maybe won’t wait for the new GM. Or maybe they are close with a new GM and will let King manage two or three or five games or so while finalizing things with the GM. Or maybe King will be there for a while as they take their time.
After thinking about it, a coach with “abuse” in his past is absolutely not going to be palatable at this moment. Yes, he is a new man and forgiveness is noble, but the timing is just horrible for that.
Lots of moving parts. Now that Bowman and Colliton are gone, maybe the blog commenters won’t be as tedious and redundant.
Brookbank and Mitell needed to go too. Nothing was working. Absolutely nothing. Well, maybe the PP and PK.
PLEASE! No Tortorella!
We’re going to find out how much a different/better coach will matter. Stanbo set the pipeline back years.
Disagree about Dach being a wasted pick. He was brought up immediately and needed more development. Desperate decisions when you’re thin on talent often backfire. Shows quality talent. With good coaching I think he will become a #2 C.
So glad that the ace finally fell on all 3 – I would have preferred Crawford but likely his past ruled him out or he ruled himself out
King is not a proven NHL coach so some of the same problems may continue but as a player he was tough so maybe he brings some accountability to the roster – that would be welcome
Davidson better not be the new GM that would be a lazy choice – hire a new Pres of Hockey Ops have that person hire a GM and then that person hire a coach – do it right and hopefully relatively quickly like before the new year
Sunday will be very interesting but for now there is hope
Based on Danny boys statement it was Davidson who made the call. But I agree with my brethren here that Davidson’s linkage to Bowman makes him a non stater. In fact, I’m sure Bowman recommended Davidson’ to Danny on his way out the door. The Blackhawks should start with a President of Hockey Operations then a GM then a coach. However, Danny is running the show and expect a half as@ show.
Using a couple of interims as coach and Gm saves adding to the bottom line this year. Maybe in New Year a permanent Gm announced and coach after the season ends or something.
For the people clamoring for Crawford as coach: Optics. Will never happen. Now the team can deep six the defensive philosophy, play out the string, 2 people can try to make names for themselves and throw their hats into the ring. It also gives management the time they need to find the guy they want to lead this team. So far the rebuild is going great this year: got rid of StanBo and Kid Coach. Can only go up from here. GO HAWKS!!! Cannot believe Danny said that Davidson made the call. The Fans made this call.
The last few weeks have been an unbelievable mess with this storied franchise ! It just goes on and on and on with so much stupidity ! They don’t have the horses ! End of story ! POPS 4
POPS: It only gets better from here, you have to hit rock bottom before you can move up.
@Hammer Time, have we really hit rock bottom yet? If Davidson remains as
the GM we still have a ways to go.
Does Danny Boy know what he’s doing?
I love that people are really trashing the interim GM they had never heard of before 2 weeks ago…
Didn’t learn their lesson bringing up unproven NHL coach? At least the ice Hogs have won one more game than the Hawks this year. Second to last in conf. Ug.
Part of Davidson’s statement says they are continuing their search for a permanent new head coach
That sounds suspicious to me – the interim GM is going to hire a permanent coach and then the new GM won’t be able to hire his own coach – that’s back ass-wards
Unless Davidson is already the new GM and that’s troubling because they need someone with a good NHL GM track record to stabilize things
@Tab, Hiring Derek King instills nothing but confidence. Does he or JC have a better record at the Rock?
Here is KD’s resume per Wiki
Kyle Davidson (born 1988 or 1989) is a Canadian sports executive who has been serving as interim general manager of the Chicago Blackhawks ice hockey organization in the National Hockey League (NHL) since October 26, 2021.[1]
Davidson graduated with a bachelor’s degree in sports leadership from Laurentian University. After graduating in 2009, he began working for the Ottawa Senators (NHL) in their supporter relations department. The following year, Davidson became an intern with the Chicago Blackhawks as a video analyst. Between 2012 and 2018, he worked for the ice hockey organization’s administration and held various positions. In 2018, he was appointed assistant to general manager Stan Bowman. The following year, Davidson was promoted to assistant general manager, and in October 2021 he took over on an interim basis after Bowman stepped down from his positions with the Blackhawks.[1]
Davidson has been involved in winning the Stanley Cup with the Blackhawks for the 2012–2013[2][3] and 2014–2015 seasons.[4][5]
Just saw this, so this softens my criticism somewhat, a tiny bit. A new GM, Hockey Op guys is preferable.
We appreciate Derek’s willingness to step in behind the bench as we embark on our search for our next permanent head coach. His NHL experience as a player and work with our younger players in Rockford over the last four years gives us great confidence in his ability to lead the Chicago Blackhawks in this interim role.”
Go4Four – Vegas wouldn’t put that bet on the board cause it has no chance of happening again. JC will head back to Europe to find a new team.
This is Step 1 hopefully quickly followed by Step 2 hiring a competent, experienced GM like Gorton. Step 3 will be to hire a competent, experienced coach. At least there is a reason to keep watching games – it was getting to the point where I couldn’t watch much of the recent games. I had to laugh last night when the commentators said multiple times after falling behind 2-0 within the first few minutes – “This isn’t the start they were looking for.”
Wasn’t King required to play the same system in Rockford that Colliton used with the Hawks? Wouldn’t this be more of the same mess we’ve seen? Strange interim hire.
Without Colliton here maybe King will employ a new system
Goodbye, Skippy. Don’t let the door hit your ass on the way out.
hey tab it is call an opinion just like 90 percent of your articles they are bush league.
Colliton,s firing is long overdue. He is not an NHL Coach and my dear departed Grandma always lectured me to say nothing about someone if you cant say something nice so, BYE. This team,s softness and laziness will not disappear with a temporary King behind the bench so to speak. The wrecking ball has not arrived yet. This saga is in its infancy with many soft wacky turns by a WOKE Danny Wirtz to come. I have no faith that the right thing will be done here. This all has Half Ass written all over it. Dump anything of value at the deadline.
Why wouldn’t people trash the new GM??? Because he worked SIDE BY SIDE with the architect of the mess the team is currently in. Do you really want an acolyte of StanBo taking over??? NFW The house needs to be gutted.
Change was much needed. My only question with choosing King is this: IF,IF the organization thinks enough of King to bring him in to coach the big club rather than Crawford , won’t they will risk losing him when they bring in the new GM and his new hand chosen coach, right? That would seem the logical order of things for this year.
Forgot about Crawford’s abuse history.
In a way I feel sorry for Colliton, he wasn’t ready to coach at the NHL level and Bowman thru him to the wolves. Sorry, at the NHL level you can’t possibly expect a young inexperienced coach to learn as you go.
Now, bringing in King instead of Marc Crawford guarantees the same old same old. Just hope that they organization gets their act together in the off season and brings in the right people.