It’s just December 5th, and already there’s been three coaching changes. It was announced today that the Chicago Blackhawks were firing Head Coach Luke Richardson, and that Anders Sorensen would take over as interim coach. This move came after Chicago started the year 8-16-2.
Here are four possible candidates to be the next coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.
Gerard Gallant
The NHL has a reputation for its carousel of retreaded coaching hires, and Gerard Gallant is one of them. He started coaching in 1995-96, and slowly moved up the coaching ranks. He’s coached 705 games for four different NHL teams– the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Florida Panthers, the Vegas Golden Knights, and the New York Rangers– with a record of 369-262-4-70. Gallant was one of Team Canada’s assistant coaches during the 2007 Men’s Ice Hockey World Championships, and helped coach them to a gold medal finish. He coached two NHL All-Star games in 2016 and 2018, and won the Jack Adams Award in 2018.
Todd McLellan
Todd McLellan’s coaching career started in 1993. He had success at the junior level and at the minor league level, and won the Stanley Cup as an assistant coach for the Detroit Red Wings in 2007-08. He then went on to coach the San Jose Sharks, the Edmonton Oilers, and the Los Angeles Kings. McLellan has coached 1,144 games at the NHL level, and has a record of 598-412-134. Over 16 seasons as an NHL head coach, McLellan has only missed the playoffs five times.
Jay Woodcroft
In contrast to Gallant and McLellan, Jay Woodcroft has only had one stint as an NHL head coach. Woodcroft got his start as a video review coach in 2005, and won three Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings. He joined the Edmonton Oilers organization in 2015 as an assistant coach, and was appointed head coach of the Bakersfield Condors– the Oilers’ AHL affiliate– in 2018. In 2022, Woodcroft was named the Oilers’ interim head coach. Woodcroft coached 133 NHL games with a record of 79-41-13.
Anders Sorensen (interim)
Anders Sorensen has been head coach of the Rockford IceHogs– the AHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks– since taking over during the 2021-22 season. He had a record of 117-89-16-7 as a head coach. The RoadHogs made the playoffs all three seasons with Sorensen behind the bench, although they failed to advance further than the second round.
The current plan is for Sorensen to finish the season as head coach, and a thorough search will take place during the offseason to determine if Sorensen should stay on as bench boss, or if there is a better replacement. My guess is that Sorensen ends up being the man for the job. Sorensen has been spoken highly of by RockHogs players, and expectations won’t be too high because of the state of this Blackhawks team. Really, all he has to do is build trust with the players, and realistically the job is his.
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