Blackhawks fire head coach Colliton
The Chicago Blackhawks have dismissed head coach Jeremy Colliton along with assistants Sheldon Brookbank and Tomas Mitell. Four other assistants, including Marc Crawford and goaltending coach Jimmy Waite, will remain in their positions.
The team named Derek King interim bench boss. King was the head coach of Chicago's AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs.
The Blackhawks went 1-9-2 to begin this season. Colliton was in his fourth campaign coaching the club, which entered Saturday's action ranked 29th in goals per game and 31st in goals against per contest in 2021-22.
"On the ice, interim general manager Kyle Davidson has our full confidence and autonomy to make hockey decisions, and we support him on this coaching change," Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz wrote in a statement. "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 signed a two-year contract extension with Chicago in January.
The Blackhawks posted a record of 87-92-26 under his guidance, making the playoffs once in 2019-20. The Blackhawks upset the Edmonton Oilers in the qualifying round that season before the Vegas Golden Knights eliminated them over five games in the next stage.
Chicago promoted Colliton from the IceHogs upon firing Joel Quenneville on Nov. 6, 2018 - exactly three years before Saturday's moves.