The Chicago Blackhawks have fired coach Luke Richardson, the team announced on Thursday. Richardson was in his third season and had a just a 57-118-15 record with a winning percentage of .339 during that span.
The Blackhawks were off to an 8-16-2 start, putting them last in the NHL standings. That poor performance came after the team spent money to upgrade the roster in free agency.
General manager Kyle Davidson announced Richardson’s firing, and he cited the team’s lack of progress on the ice as a major reason for the decision. Richardson, 55, was in the last year of a three-year contract.
“Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach. We thank him for his efforts and contributions to the organization and our community,” Davidson said in a statement. “As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary. We wish Luke and his family all the best moving forward.”
This was supposed to be a year in which the Blackhawks took a step forward, even if it was a small one. Connor Bedard, the 2024 Calder Trophy winner, is in his second season and Davidson tried to get more help around the young star.
Chicago spent a total of $42.2 million on Tyler Bertuzzi, Teuvo Teravainen and Alex Martinez and hoped those veterans could lead the team into the next phase of the rebuild. Instead, the results have been just as poor as the previous season.
The Blackhawks’ minus-18 goal differential ranks 29th in the league, and their 64 goals scored rank 30th. Bedard is on pace to score 15 goals, seven less than his rookie campaign, and Bertuzzi has yet to find his groove in Chicago.
Anders Sorensen, the coach of the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, will take on the role of interim head coach.
The Chicago Blackhawks have made a coaching change following a poor start to the season. The team announced on Tuesday that head coach Jeremy Colliton has been relieved of his duties, with assistant coach Derek King taking over on an interim basis.
The decision to make a coaching change comes after the Blackhawks got off to a disappointing 1-9-2 start to the season, which is currently the worst record in the NHL. The team has struggled to find consistency on both ends of the ice, ranking near the bottom of the league in goals scored and goals allowed.
Colliton, who was hired as head coach in 2018, had been under increasing pressure as the losses continued to pile up. Despite leading the team to a playoff appearance in the pandemic-shortened 2019-2020 season, the Blackhawks have failed to build on that success and have regressed this season.
In a statement, Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman said, “We believe a coaching change is necessary at this time in order to give our team a fresh start and a new direction. We thank Jeremy for his contributions to the organization and wish him the best in his future endeavors.”
King, who has been an assistant coach with the Blackhawks since 2019, will take over as interim head coach while the team conducts a search for a permanent replacement. He will be tasked with trying to turn around the team’s fortunes and get them back on track in what has been a challenging season so far.
The Blackhawks will look to King to provide a spark and instill a sense of urgency in the team as they try to climb out of the basement of the NHL standings. It remains to be seen if this coaching change will be enough to right the ship and salvage what has been a disappointing start to the season for one of the league’s most storied franchises.
