Colliton fired as coach of Blackhawks, replaced by King

Jeremy Colliton was fired as coach of the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday.

Derek King was named his replacement. He was coach of Rockford, Chicago's American Hockey League affiliate, since Nov. 6, 2018, when Colliton was promoted from that role to the Blackhawks.
Chicago is 1-9-2 after a 5-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Friday and has the second-fewest points in the NHL (Arizona Coyotes, one point).
"I think it wasn't necessarily one thing, one event, one game. ... I think it's a lot of feel," Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson said Sunday. "Obviously, the results are what they are, not good enough. That goes without saying but I believe the message being delivered wasn't translating to on-ice, either production or changes or fixing of mistakes that kept occurring over and over again.
"The losses aren't necessarily the issue. I think it's sometimes the way you lose that shows a change needs to be made. It was just an accumulation and a general feel for how the response was being shown once the puck dropped."
The Blackhawks lost their first nine games of the season (0-7-2) and entered Saturday allowing the second-most goals per game (3.92), behind the Coyotes (4.00), and scored the fourth-fewest goals per game (2.17).
"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. "I appreciate the support from Kyle Davidson and (CEO) Danny Wirtz through this process and I cannot wait to get going. I understand my role and position and am] ready to do the work necessary to help the organization succeed."
The coaching change comes 11 days after Chicago
[was fined $2 million and fired Stan Bowman
as their president of hockey operations and general manager, following an independent investigation of former player Kyle Beach's allegations of sexual assault by then-video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010. Davidson replaced Bowman as GM.
"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," Wirtz said. "As we look to move forward, we know we must earn back the trust of our fans, and we are grateful for the support of our entire community as we work to do just that.
"We appreciate all that Jeremy has brought to the Blackhawks, and we look forward to working with Derek as our interim head coach while we work to rebuild our permanent hockey operations leadership."
Colliton became the 38th coach in Blackhawks history, and at age 33 the youngest coach in the NHL, when he replaced Joel Quenneville.
He was 87-92-26 in four seasons with the Blackhawks and 4-5 in the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs, when Chicago defeated the Edmonton Oilers in four games in the best-of-5 Stanley Cup Qualifiers before losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in five games in the best-of-7 Western Conference First Round.
Colliton signed a two-year extension through the 2022-23 season on Jan. 12, 2021.
Davidson said it was not easy to tell Colliton that he was being fired.
"It's a really tough conversation to have," Davidson said. "Again, I've been in the role for just over a week and it's not what you want to do, but you don't get to choose how these things progress. You just have to react and do what's right for the team."
The Blackhawks also fired assistant coaches Tomas Mitell and Sheldon Brookbank. Assistant coach Marc Crawford and goaltending coach Jimmy Waite will remain.
King said he was surprised when told Colliton had been fired and he was being given the opportunity to coach the Blackhawks.
"I mean, I was in shock, had a chat with Kyle and I was just like, 'Wow, OK, sure I'll do it. why not, right?' but yeah, I'm nervous," King said Sunday. "I'm a little scared, I'm anxious, I'm excited. there's a lot of emotions going right now."
Expectations were high after the Blackhawks acquired goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in a trade with the Golden Knights; traded for defenseman Seth Jones from the Columbus Blue Jackets; acquired his brother, defenseman Caleb Jones, in a trade with the Edmonton Oilers; and traded for forward
Tyler Johnson
from the Tampa Bay Lightning during the offseason.
"Our on-ice goal remains the same: to build an elite system of hockey, and we have not delivered on that," Davidson said. "The fact is, our play and competitiveness must improve. Every game, every shift. 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."