Kyle Davidson, Derek King Meet The Media
The Blackhawks interims met the media on Sunday morning.
Interim general manager Kyle Davidson introduced interim head coach Derek King. And there were some interesting pieces of information we learned during their comments.
Kyle Davidson’s opening statement pic.twitter.com/Z58bmQ2OUc
— Scott Powers (@ByScottPowers) November 7, 2021
Davidson noted that he has the full power of the general manager role, even though he’s technically the interim GM. That he felt confident enough in his position with the organization to approach the Wirtz family with the need to make a change behind the bench one week into his time in the role is impressive. As he discussed with the press, he saw a need to move on from Jeremy Colliton and made the move.
And most fans are glad he did.
How long will King be the interim head coach? Based on their comments on Sunday, it looks like King’s going to get the gig for the rest of the 2021-22 regular season.
Which makes sense. The Blackhawks are looking to replace Stan Bowman as the president of hockey operations and will need to make a more full-time decision on Davidson as the general manager at some point. Those two positions should be filled before the Hawks bring in a new head coach on, presumably, a multi-year deal.
It was also interesting that Davidson said he’s evaluating everything and everyone. He intends on adding at least one more coach to King’s staff (cough, Brian Campbell, cough) and it appears there will be some dialogue between Davidson and the coaching staff — including both King and Marc Crawford — to determine how the players who are on the payroll fit. And if a few of the players need to find a different payroll to be a part of soon.
We are watching a franchise in turmoil attempt to change lanes and get back to moving in the right direction on the fly. There are going to be growing pains along the way, but it certainly sounds like Davidson has been empowered to make an effort to improve the on-ice product. We’ll see how that takes shape in the coming days and weeks, but the speed with which he dumped Colliton shows he isn’t wasting much/any time.
Maybe the best thing Davidson said during his first press conference as the GM?
“I’m not Stan. I’m a different person. And with that comes different opinions, different philosophies, for sure. … There’s definitely going to be some changes because I have strong opinions on how certain things should run, how certain things should operate.”
Good luck get rid of the loafers this organization is lackadaisical you have your work cut out for you the culture here stinks
I also liked what King had to say about getting the players to relax and get back to playing a hard, solid hockey game and having fun – the implication being that none of the above was happening with Colliton
He also said there will be accountability – perhaps every new coach says that so the proof will be in the pudding – still it was nice to hear cause other than Strome it seems no player suffered any accountability with JC
I posted this on the other thread but another thing Davidson said stood out to me regarding the coaching change
“We were making mistakes that were correctable but they weren’t getting corrected” – a pretty accurate and blunt assessment of coach Colliton – let’s see now if things change for the better
Wrap, you highlight comments from King about the need to relax and have fun, and Davidson’s observation about correctable mistakes not getting corrected. I wonder if they might be related – “trying too hard” to not make a mistake which just results in repeating the mistakes.
Uncle – yep there was I think the overthinking trying too hard being uptight mindset that somehow Colliton instilled
Being interesting to see if the players relax and just play if the system needs to changed or not
Lets hope they get things on the right track.
It’s all up from here, Colliton didn’t set the bar very high. Look for a more attacking offense and defense. Smiles all around
Trying to hard not to make a mistake ???? You got to be kidding ..Try being unprepared to hit the ice …How many games did the Hawks get scored on within 1 minute of the opening puck drop ? Most .
Best wishes Mr .King .
While everyone is happy to see JC go, as am I, they seem to blame everything bad about this team on him. If I remember correctly is was a guy named Stan who fired the 3 time SC winning coach in favor of this Swedish Tier 3 League coach. And a guy named Stan who put together this team who at best was given an 50/50 shot at even making the PO’s.
If Kyle is given the keys to the house and it appears as if he has first shot at that, hopefully he succeeds. I just don’t see anything in his record that makes me believe he is the guy. This reminds me of the Chayka in Arizona, not good.
I don’t have a problem with “interim” but I hope to heck they are actively looking for a new GM.
Let me make this clear to everyone. I can not make a 4ft putt missed 4 in a row. Should have shot 85 instead of 105.
Next
Anyone reading what the have to say does not have my confidence.
Get me new blood in this organIzation.
What is Brendan Shanahan doing? Hated him as a player cause he was good for our opponents. But might be good for us as a GM. Do like Gorton also. Resurrect Keenan!
Hit the tequila.
Like it or not, sounds alot like this may the beginning of Davidson-King era.
y’all literally know almost nothing about Kyle Davidson and we’re all praying for someone from outside the organization.
The dude was on the job less than a week and he went to Danny and said Colliton had to go – and fired him. It takes some onions to make that move the way he did. I like it. Now let’s see how he & King work over the roster to put guys in position to suceed.
Wasn’t knocking them, just sounds very much like Davidson is next Gm and King with chance to earn the head coach job full time it would appear. Hoping they can get it done.
Just woke up from my nap. Missed the game but about to see it.
No onions needed when the non sell out crowd at the UC all wanted JC’s head. An obvious and necessary move.
Both given the interim title. That title is permission to show what you can do and be considered for the job. I give them both an audition for the job.