The Chicago Blackhawks have hired their 42nd head coach in their franchise history. This go around it’s not a guy without head coaching experience as was the case with the last few guys. The Blackhawks have settled on a former Detroit Red Wings head coach, 51 year old Jeff Blashill, who is a Michigan native. With the free agent pool of coaching options drying up like the Las Vegas desert, the Blackhawks will spin this move as their number one option. All the solid choices have come to terms with their future. Leaving some retreads that have had more than one opportunity as a head coach in the NHL but nothing spectacular. The Blashill hiring gives mixed feelings as he has a nice hockey resume in coaching but is not the splash signing the Blackhawks fan base had hoped for. It is the Chicago way of avoiding the top choices. Settling for plan C or D, as you notice I did not mention B. It’s general manager Kyle Davidson’s second crack at hiring his guy as the new Chief. Can Blashill be the guy that can ride the Blackhawks number 1 overall pick of 2023 Connor Bedard to the Stanley Cup playoffs? Maybe help him become that super star in the NHL that all the experts chimed in about being the next Connor McDavid?

Jeff Blashill played college hockey at Ferris State where he played goalie. From 1999-2002 he was an assistant coach at Ferris State. Then he continued coaching at the college level getting a assistant job at Miami Ohio University for six seasons. His first head coaching job came in the USHL with the Indiana Ice where he won the first ever championship in that league. After one season in Indiana, he went back to the college game and took the head coaching job at Western Michigan. Then he got his first taste at the NHL level with the Red Wings. They liked him so much they gave Blashill the head coaching job to their AHL affiliate, the Grand Rapids Griffins. He won a Calder Cup as the Griffins head coach in the AHL and Coach of the Year award. In 2015 he got his first head coaching gig in the NHL replacing Mike Babcock on the Detroit Red Wings. His first season he got the Red Wings to the post-season. He had the job for seven seasons but would never get a team back to the post-season after his first season. He was fired after a 32-40-10 in the 2021-’22 season. The Red Wings were an aging team when he came in as they had to go younger. Some will say it was to blame for his overall record in Detroit. Blashill’s NHL record is a losing one at 204-261-72.

Last year the Chicago Blackhawks finished with a 25-46-11 record which was good for last in the Central. It is the second straight season the Blackhawks, this franchise, have been number 31 overall. The Blackhawks GM fired his first hire in Luke Richardson in December. He was replaced by Anders Sorenson as the interim head coach and he helped the team finish another dismal season. Soreneson will now become an assistant on Blashill’s staff. The Blackhawks will also keep Jimmy Waite as the goal tending coach, a guy who played for the franchise and has coached goalies for several years now. Luke Richardson replaced Derek King, who was an interim head coach for Jeremy Colliton. Sorenson, Richardson, King, and Colliton got their first taste of being an NHL head coach from the Blackhawks. This is why the last time the team wearing the Indian sweater played in the post-season was in 2020. That was when they expanded the post-season because their was a stoppage due to the pandemic.

The Chicago Blackhawks think things will be different for Jeff Blashill, who has been working under Jon Cooper of the Tampa Bay Lightning since his days in Detroit. Cooper, who is one Blashill’s good friends, had very nice things to say about his pal who ran Tampa Bay’s defense and penalty kill. Cooper is one of the best head coaches in the league with all those great Lightning teams that have won multiple cups in the last ten seasons. It will be the same kind of ordeal for Blashill like in Detroit as he has multiple guys on the roster that have made their season debut last year. Connor Bedard had the same amount of goals he had in the first season in his second year, as he played in more games. We know Kyle Davidson will need to add to this team and give their young superstar another guy to strengthen their number 1 line and make it one of the lethal scoring machines in the game.

I would have loved to see the Blackhawks open up the vault and go with one of the top college coaches to pair up with Connor Bedard. Like David Carle and Adam Nightingale who are staying at the college level. You know this team would not pay a guy like Mike Sulliven who left Pittsburgh for the mecca New York Rangers job. The Blackhawks are banking on that Blashill soaked in all of Jon Cooper’s coaching philosophies. What I do like about this hire is Blashill is a defensive guy, which this team needs if they can’t light the lamp and be one of the top offenses in the game. The Blackhawks will spin this like they got the best new thing since sliced bread. Even though I feel like we are light years away from post-season hockey. I know the Blackhawks cleaned up their own franchise with the dynasty with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. It did not take that long to go back to bad hockey and games that are not shown on television because the Blackhawks, Bulls, and White Sox are still in a cable dispute that has gone on way too long. Nobody wants to stream their product being the 31st overall team. I’m not drinking the kool-aid or smoking their peace pipe until they get this franchise once again out of the hockey purgatory and act like an original six team. Act like a big market so the Sullys of the world will pick Chicago jobs over the Big Apple.