At the start of the 2020-21 season in mid-January, the Blackhawks announced they had awarded coach Jeremy Colliton an extension through 2022-23.
“Jeremy’s strength as a coach is his communication and relationship with younger players, and that’s something we’ll need as we go forward,” president of hockey operations and general manager Stan Bowman said. “We’ll need those young players to take a step in their career. Jeremy embraces that, and that’s a talent he has.”
Colliton was 62-58-17 in his first two seasons and the Hawks were going through a rebuild, so it made sense to keep the status quo while the younger players got experience and Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews were still in their prime.
Crusty and respected coach Joel Quenneville was a tough act to follow, but Bowman viewed the reserved and plain-spoken Colliton as the perfect antidote. A press release the Hawks issued the day of the extension announcement noted Colliton “helped guide the team to the 2020 Stanley Cup Playoffs” — conveniently ignoring the fact they finished last in the Central Division and were handed a postseason spot in the Edmonton bubble thanks to a revamped format after the COVID-19 shutdown in March 2020.
But none of that matters now.
Colliton was fired Saturday, almost nine months after getting the extension, and replaced by Rockford IceHogs coach Derek King on an interim basis. Two assistant coaches, Tomas Mitel and Sheldon Brookbank, also were let go.
This was a no-brainer decision based on the Hawks’ 1-9-2 record and probably should’ve been done earlier, if the new leadership team’s attention hadn’t been focused on the Brad Aldrich allegations and their ugly aftermath.
The new leadership team consists of CEO Danny Wirtz and president of business operations Jamie Faulkner, who now share the unenviable task of trying to retain most of their fan base in the midst of an off-the-ice crisis and an on-the-ice implosion.
Wirtz released a statement Saturday noting it has been an “extremely difficult” few weeks dealing with the “necessary changes” that were made, not mentioning Bowman’s resignation. He said “we know we must earn back the trust of our fans” and insisted they would.
The decision on Colliton was made by interim general manager Kyle Davidson, according to Wirtz’s statement. Davidson replaced Bowman, who said in a statement Oct. 26 he resigned to avoid being a “distraction.” Bowman’s participation in the May 2010 management meeting about then-Hawks prospect Kyle Beach’s allegation that Aldrich sexually assaulted him was revealed in the independent investigation by Jenner & Block.
Davidson said in a statement Saturday that the Hawks’ “play and competitiveness must improve” and that he “appreciated” Colliton’s contributions.
Davidson was not made available to speak. No one from the Hawks, in fact, was made available for comment, continuing a disturbing trend for an organization that supposedly believes in transparency.
Colliton, also unavailable, must have known the ax was about to fall. Each loss seemed to get progressively worse. The Oct. 29 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes and former Hawks goalie Antti Raanta might have been the final dagger. The Hawks allowed four first-period goals in a 6-3 loss, one game after they’d battled the Toronto Maple Leafs into overtime at the United Center before falling 3-2.
Chicago will greet the news with a big yawn. Colliton may be remembered here as the guy who replaced Quenneville or perhaps the guy who was fired during the Aldrich scandal. Nothing he did as coach — or said to the media — was particularly memorable.
Whatever knowledge Colliton has about hockey, he lacked the people skills necessary to relay his message to the Hawks fans buying tickets and watching on TV.
One thing Chicagoans expect out of their coaches and managers is a personality, which is why former Bears coach Mike Ditka remains the once and forever king in this town. The idea of being interesting is to keep the team in the public eye, making people want to follow it, which in turns creates revenue for the owners.
But Colliton may have been deprived of the interesting gene when he was born. It was almost as if Bowman wanted to find someone duller than himself. Colliton also couldn’t get Hawks fans to buy into his schemes, and even after Bowman junked the rebuild over the summer, Colliton proved ineffective as a coach and communicator.
Even though he’s only 36, I’d be surprised if he resurfaces as an NHL head coach unless Bowman makes an unlikely comeback.
Now both are gone, along with former Hawks President John McDonough and a slew of others. The future of the team resides now in the hands of Wirtz and Faulkner. Wirtz is the son of Chairman Rocky Wirtz, who took over in 2007 after his father, Bill Wirtz, died.
Rocky is credited with changing the perception of the Hawks organization after the tight-fisted reign of his father and grandfather, who once let superstar Bobby Hull flee to a rival league, the World Hockey Association. He made several changes, including ending the organization’s longtime ban on televising home games. The Hawks have won three Stanley Cups under Rocky’s leadership, and he’s one of the more popular owners in town.
Faulkner was formerly CEO of E15, an analytics company, and “advancing the fan experience” was listed as part of her job description when the Hawks hired her last December. Since the Aldrich incident, Danny Wirtz and Faulkner have been proactive, apologizing to Beach, ensuring fans the organization is accountable and getting the NHL to x out Aldrich’s name on the Stanley Cup.
The auditions of Davidson and King will now be center stage with a lot of season left and many questions to answer. What does it mean for Kane and Toews, who many assumed would spend their entire careers as Blackhawks? Will they be the next to go in this fork-in-the-road season?
It’s going to be a long and bumpy ride for the Hawks. We’ll find out if the organization can recover from its self-inflicted wounds.
But it will take a lot more than written statements to prove they’re serious about change.
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