Chicago Blackhawks Have Fired Coach Luke Richardson

Rockford IceHogs coach Anders Sorensen will be promoted in the interim . He will coach and Chicago assistant GM of player development Mark Eaton will take over as the interim in Rockford.

The team said in a statement:

“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. 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.”

Pierre LeBrun of TSN reports, “Tough decision for sure for GM Kyle Davidson. Luke Richardson was in the last year of a 3-year contract, although the club had a 4th year option”

A couple of weeks ago, Blackhawks beat reporter Ben Pope tweeted, “Connor Bedard looked the most discouraged I’ve ever seen him after practice today.” Bedard seems to have snapped out of his struggles, but the conversation around his lack of production and mounting frustration meant fingers were pointed at the coach.

Taylor Hall also cited disappointment that he was scratched from a game and not told why. Richardson told the media it was because Hall wasn’t up to speed. Not long after the scratch, Hall scored a hat trick.

It seems clear the messaging in Chicago was an issue. The team wants to take the next steps and start to compete, but they aren’t often a challenge for other clubs. Something had to change and the easiest thing to do was switch who was calling the shots.