Jeremy Colliton is out as Blackhawks coach.
Three years to the day after Joel Quenneville’s abrupt 2018 firing, Quenneville’s replacement was dismissed by the Hawks on Saturday after an inept 1-9-2 start to the season.
Derek King, formerly the Rockford IceHogs’ coach, will take over as interim coach in Colliton’s stead.
Saturday’s overhaul not only answers a crucial question about interim general manager Kyle Davidson’s power — he evidently has been given plenty of it — but also continues the franchise’s drastic transition into a new era.
“Our on-ice goal remains the same: to build an elite system of hockey — and we have not delivered on that,” Davidson said in a statement. “The fact is our play and competitiveness must improve.
“Today’s coaching changes are difficult, especially given the incredible personal connections Jeremy and others have made with our players in their development. We appreciate Jeremy’s contributions to the organization over the last three seasons, and we wish him and his family the best.”
Hawks assistants Sheldon Brookbank and Tomas Mitell — both Colliton devotees — were also fired Saturday, while veteran assistant Marc Crawford, longtime goalie coach Jimmy Waite and others remain on board. Anders Sorensen takes over as Rockford’s interim coach.
“It has been an extremely difficult couple of weeks for our organization, and we have had to come to terms with a number of necessary changes,” CEO Danny Wirtz said in a statement. “Kyle Davidson has our full confidence and autonomy to make hockey decisions, and we support him on this coaching change.”
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/22991735/King_Derek1920_TRi.jpg)
King, 54, is accustomed to replacing Colliton: He did so three years ago in Rockford when Colliton replaced Quenneville. A veteran of 830 NHL games during his playing career, King has mainly focused on prospect development during his coaching tenure.
But he makes sense as a fill-in option until the Hawks decide on a permanent GM, who can then choose a permanent coach. It’s not implausible that Davidson and King could stick in their roles, but it’s equally likely the Hawks will turn toward more experienced outside candidates.
“This team has a lot of talent — talent that I am familiar with from my time in the organization — and I look forward to working with them behind the bench,” King said in a statement. “I cannot wait to get going.”
The Hawks are expected to hold a full news conference Sunday before King debuts as coach at home against the Predators.
For Colliton, however, Saturday marks an unceremonious and unsatisfying end to a three-year run during which nothing ever completely clicked. He finishes with a 87-92-26 record, having never coached a full 82-game season but having posted a losing record in each of the four partial seasons he oversaw.
His touted strengths when hired — his patience, his communicative style, his strategic hockey mind — all devolved, in the end, into a stubborn, futile dedication to a system that didn’t work for his team and an unwillingness to blame anything other than his players’ mistakes for the team’s struggles.
As a person, Colliton remained well-liked throughout the locker room and beyond. But as a coach, he never demonstrated the flexibility needed to dig the Hawks out of their deep current hole.
As the losses mounted in recent weeks, Colliton’s frustrations began uncharacteristically boiling over. On Wednesday, he ripped the Hawks for not “understand[ing]...why you win and why you lose.”
But even after a remarkably disinterested effort in Friday’s 5-1 loss to the Jets, Colliton didn’t seem to realize the end was imminent. His message to the team was to take the day off Saturday, “regroup and come out flying” Sunday.
His players might as well ignore that message now. Saturday’s firings wipe the coaching staff slate just as clean as the front office. The Hawks can now begin rebuilding, from bottom to top, on all fronts.
