The Chicago Blackhawks, current owners of the worst record in the NHL, have fired head coach Luke Richardson.
The team announced the move Thursday, also naming AHL affiliate Rockford IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen as interim head coach. Blackhawks assistant general manager Mark Eaton will in turn become the interim head coach in Rockford.
Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson’s explanation of the move:
“Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach. We thank him for his efforts and contributions to the organization and our community,” Davidson said. “As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary. We wish Luke and his family all the best moving forward.”
Richardson is the third head coach in the area to be fired during a season this year, joining Matt Eberflus of the Chicago Bears and Pedro Grifol of the Chicago White Sox. He assumed head coaching duties in 2022 after assistant stints with the Ottawa Senators, New York Islanders and Montreal Canadiens.
His Blackhawks tenure began with a 26-49-7 record in his first season. A weak roster was easy enough to blame for that performance, but the problem was the team got no better over the next two seasons as it began the Connor Bedard era. The former No. 1 overall pick is still only 19 years old, and Chicago apparently decided it needed a new coach to shepherd what many see as a generational talent.
The new coach Sorensen has plenty of experience coaching young players in the AHL and has been part of the Chicago organization since 2018. He was in his fourth season of coaching Rockford, but will now get 56 games to try his hand in the NHL.
