When Marc Crawford was guiding the Avalanche to the 1996 Stanley Cup, Jeremy Colliton was an 11-year-old working on his family farm in south Alberta.
When Colliton broke into the NHL as a rookie in 2005-06, Crawford was already in his 11th year as a head coach, having already steered his teams to the playoffs in nine of his first 10.
Now, Colliton is the youngest coach in the league, and Crawford will be by his side starting this fall. The Blackhawks hired the 58-year-old Crawford, who most recently spent three seasons on the Senators’ staff, as an assistant coach Tuesday.
The Ontario native brings a much-needed large dose of experience to Colliton’s staff, which otherwise consists of two 38-year-olds in Sheldon Brookbank and Tomas Mitell — the latter of whom was hired straight out of Sweden two weeks ago.
Crawford began his career behind the bench with Quebec in 1994, then followed the franchise to Colorado, where he led the Avs to 104 points and a Stanley Cup title in his second season.
He made later stops in Vancouver, Los Angeles and Dallas, although his stint as the Senators’ interim coach in the final month of this past season marked his first moments as a head coach since 2011.
