Former Detroit Red Wings coach Jeff Blashill has emerged as a top contender for the Chicago Blackhawks vacancy, according to reports.
The buzz since the weekend has been that Blashill’s hiring looked like a certainty, but Sportsnet journalist and “Hockey Night in Canada” analyst Elliotte Friedman pushed back on that notion.
“I heard on Friday morning that he was in as the head coach of Chicago — he was going to be the guy,” Friedman said on his “32 Thoughts” podcast Monday. However, “I had a couple people tell me it’s too soon. That would be premature. … There was a job interview he had somewhere else, but it got canceled. That’s why it began to spread like wildfire that he was going to Chicago.”
Still, Friedman called Blashill a “very serious contender.”
Blashill, 51, has a wide-ranging background. He has been a head coach and assistant in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, United States Hockey League, American Hockey League and with USA Hockey in addition to the NHL.
He coached the Red Wings for seven seasons from 2015-22 with a 204-261-72 record and one playoff appearance. For the last three seasons he was an assistant on Jon Cooper’s Tampa Bay Lightning staff.
Another known contender for the Hawks job is Anders Sörensen, the interim head coach this past season. However the search turns out, Sörensen likely will remain with the organization in some capacity.
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“We hold great value in Anders,” general manager Kyle Davidson said in April after the season ended. “If the coaching search doesn’t go in his favor, he’s going to be part of our organization. We want him as part of the organization, no matter what.
“We love Anders. He’s been part of the organization for some time, he’s a great hockey mind, he’s a great person and those are the type of people we want in our organization.”
Sörensen was promoted from head coach of the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs to interim Hawks coach when the team fired Luke Richardson on Dec. 5. The Hawks finished 25-46-11 for the NHL’s second-worst record.