Months after the firing of Luke Richardson, the Chicago Blackhawks have hired a new head coach.
The team announced Thursday they have named Jeff Blashill, who spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach for the Tampa Bay Lightning, as the 42nd head coach in franchise history.
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WATCH HERE“Jeff is an incredibly smart and talented coach who boasts more than 25 years of coaching experience across developmental leagues, the NHL and the world stage,” Blackhawks General Manager Kyle Davidson said in a statement. “He’s thrived when in a position to develop young players and has shown he’s capable of blending that into overall team success, a vision and philosophy we share for where we are today and where we see our team in the future. We couldn’t be more excited for what’s to come under Jeff’s direction.”
The 51-year-old Detroit native and father of three helped the Lightning to a record of 138-86-22, with the team qualifying for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in each of his three seasons with the club. He also served as head coach for the Red Wings for seven seasons, ending in 2022 with a record of 204-261-72 in his 537 games with the team.
The Blackhawks fired Richardson in December, appointing Rockford IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen as their interim head coach.
“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 at the time. “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.”
Richardson, hired before the start of the 2022-23 season, posted a 57-118-15 record during his time with the Blackhawks.
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