Blackhawks Rumors

The Chicago Blackhawks have made some changes to the NHL coaching staff, hiring Rob Cookson as an additional assistant and promoting Marc Crawford to associate coach. Kyle Davidson, the team’s interim general manager, explained the Cookson hire:

Rob’s extensive NHL experience will complement our staff immediately. It’s his fresh perspective, however, that will really benefit the team as we work on this transition. We look forward to Rob meeting us on this road trip and I know he is eager to get going with this group.

As the release points out, Cookson has experience as an assistant with HC Lugano in Switzerland, where he coached Blackhawks forward Philipp Kurashev. For several years, he served under Crawford with the ZSC Lions, winning the championship in 2016 when Auston Matthews was on the roster. He also has plenty of experience in the NHL, spending more than a decade as an assistant with the Calgary Flames and Ottawa Senators.

When the team relieved Jeremy Colliton of his duties earlier this month, they also moved on from assistants Tomas Mitell and Sheldon Brookbank. They promised then that they would be adding an assistant coach to help new interim head coach Derek King, though he would be leaning heavily on Marc Crawford for the rest of the season. That support has resulted in an increased title, as Crawford has been elevated to an associate.

There is still going to be a head coaching search for the Blackhawks moving forward, but King (and perhaps Crawford) are making a case for themselves. Since the change, the team has won three straight games and is climbing out of the brutal 1-9-2 start that they had under Colliton.

The Chicago Blackhawks removed Jeremy Colliton from his position as head coach yesterday, meaning they are now dealing with interim hires at the general manager and coaching positions. Kyle Davidson is serving as interim GM after Stan Bowman’s resignation, while Derek King who had been with the Rockford IceHogs is taking over behind the bench for the time being. Today, both men spoke with the media and Davidson explained to reporters including Mark Lazerus of The Athletic that the organization will not hire a new coach until after this season is completed. He believes it will allow for a more thorough search, giving the Blackhawks access to all available candidates.

Davidson will add an assistant to the current coaching staff at some point, though he noted that King will be leaning heavily on Marc Crawford during this transition. Crawford was not let go with the rest of the previous staff.

The Blackhawks have gone through a complete overhaul to hockey leadership over the last few weeks and are now 1-9-2 on the season after another embarrassing loss on Friday night. The team has allowed 47 goals through their first 12 games, second only to the Arizona Coyotes for worst in the league. This comes after an offseason with several blockbuster acquisitions, including Seth Jones and Marc-Andre Fleury. Jones cost the organization a substantial package of future assets and was signed to an eight-year, $76MM contract by Bowman in July.

Davidson noted that he “is not Stan” and that there will likely be philosophical differences in how he runs the team moving forward. He has the support of ownership and full power of the general manager position, even if he is still carrying the interim tag for the time being.

Delaying the coaching search until the offseason means that King will have control of the Blackhawks for the remaining 70 games, his first NHL coaching opportunity. A veteran of more than 800 games as a player, King had been the head coach of the IceHogs since partway through the 2018-19 season, taking over when Colliton was promoted to the NHL job. He had previously been an assistant coach with the Toronto Marlies and Owen Sound Attack.

Chicago Blackhawks interim GM Kyle Davidson has made his first move, signing prospect Louis Crevier to a three-year entry-level contract. The deal carries a cap hit of $850,833.

Selected 188th overall in 2020, Crevier is off to an outstanding start to his 2021-22 season, scoring six points in eight games with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL. An offseason trade took him away from the Chicoutimi Sagueneens, where he had 14 points in 26 games during last season’s shortened campaign.

Points aren’t what you notice first about Crevier though, not when he’s standing 6’8″ and towering over the rest of his junior contemporaries. The hulking defenseman can break up plays with a stick that seemingly reaches from blue line to blue line, but his skating ability has improved enough that he’s also able to effectively move the puck himself.

That frame is obviously enough for the Blackhawks to bet on, giving him an entry-level contract even as a seventh-round pick.