Jeff Blashill appears to be the most likely candidate to become the next head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks.
When I initially heard the news, I was unimpressed. When I made my mental list of contenders, Blashill was squarely in the “other guys” category. So I went out to see if my feelings about Blashill were justified, and if he could be the guy to take the Blackhawks to the next level.
Who is Jeffrey Blashill?
Blashill, 51, is currently an assistant coach in Tampa Bay, working for Jon Cooper. Blashill controls the Lightning’s defense and penalty kill and is close friends with Cooper.
He began his coaching career as an assistant at Ferris State from 1999 to 2002 before moving on to Miami-Ohio for six seasons. He was then chosen head coach of the Indiana Ice of the United States Hockey League, where he won the league championship in his first season.
After one more year with Indiana, Blashill was the head coach at Western Michigan before joining the Red Wings as an assistant the following season. In 2012-13, he was hired head coach of the Detroit Red Wings’ American Hockey League club, the Grand Rapids Griffins.
He won the Calder Cup in his first season with Grand Rapids and became the next big name in the coaching ranks.
The next season, he won the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award, which is given to the AHL’s most outstanding coach. He would coach another season in Grand Rapids before being elevated as head coach of the Red Wings for the 2015-16 NHL season.
Blashill’s Detroit Wings, led by an aging core of Pavel Datsyuk (37), Johan Franzen (36), Niklas Kronwall (36), and Henrik Zetterberg (35), advanced to the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round by Cooper’s Tampa Bay Lightning.
Detroit would not make the playoffs in any of Blashill’s subsequent six seasons with the organization.
What exactly went wrong in Detroit?
“He got a bad rap in Detroit,” Jeff Riger of 97.1 The Ticket explained. “He took the job just as the squad was set to start a long rebuild. He made the playoffs in 2015, and they haven’t returned since. He had such bad teams that it’s difficult to hold much against him. He had a young Dylan Larkin, and that was basically it. To illustrate how horrible things were, Andreas Athanasiou was their second-best player.
“He is a great communicator,” Riger continued. “He constantly preached structure, just probably didn’t have the guys to play it.”
ESPN’s John Buccigross and Greg Wyshynski shared their comments on Twitter.
“Excellent energy, command, and experience.” Buccigross stated, “I got the Detroit job at the worst time.” “Wherever he’s coached, he’s enhanced the environment. Won championships in the USHL and the AHL. He’s intelligent, self-aware, and manages a good practice. This is a great place to work for everyone.
“I think Jeff Blashill is a classic ‘better the second time around’ NHL coach that [would] be a solid hire for anyone,” Wyshynski tweeted. “Getting three seasons on Jon Cooper’s bench after Detroit doesn’t hurt either.”
Of course, we don’t just want the thoughts of media members that rely on coaches to be accessible for interviews, so I contacted my most rational Red Wings fan friend. They said Blashill was “absolutely fine.” “Not amazing, but never bad.”
It doesn’t take much research to see why Blashill’s name has risen as a front-runner for the Chicago Blackhawks’ position, especially given what’s still available.
David Carle decided to continue at the University of Denver. Mike Sullivan, as expected, accepted a position with the New York Rangers shortly after leaving Pittsburgh. Adam Nightingale of Michigan State made headlines last week, but it looks he will also remain in college.
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