Chicago Blackhawks: It is time to let Jeremy Colliton go

The Chicago Blackhawks would be smart to make a coaching change ahead of 2020-21.

It was a huge mistake for the Chicago Blackhawks to let go of the greatest head coach in the history of the team and one of the two or three greatest ever. Joel Quenneville was brilliant with the Hawks and he led them to the Stanley Cup three times in six years. Jeremy Colliton was hired in his place and he stepped into an impossible situation. Two years later, it feels like it is time to let him go and move on.

Now, Colliton is a nice man. He seems like he is a good dude all around but he isn’t ready to be a coach in the National Hockey League. As mentioned before, he did step into an impossible situation as he replaced a legend with a lackluster roster. That is no excuse, however, because there were some huge mistakes made by him that he needs to learn from.

He can absolutely be a coach in the NHL again one day but it can’t be with this current team. At the end of their final game against the Vegas Golden Knights, there was an exchange between Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews that came after both guys acknowledged everyone on their team but then passed up their head coach. It felt like the two greatest (most successful) players in the history of the franchise were very annoyed with Colliton.

Why might they be annoyed with him? Well, they are two legendary players that have had a whole lot of success. They are also on the back-nine of their careers and probably want more than being a part of a bad team. They aren’t much younger than him which also has to be hard but they had to be disappointed with a lot of his coaching decisions. His lineup and distribution of ice time were definitely questionable throughout the playoffs and even the regular season. There is no reason that a guy like John Quenneville should be out there down a goal with three minutes left in the season.

Colliton would definitely benefit as a coach if he were let go by Chicago and took a different position somewhere else. He would probably be better served back in the minors or an assistant somewhere before he gets another chance as a head coach. He will get there one day but he has a long way to go. There have been many cases across hockey where the exact same situation happened to someone who went on to be a fantastic coach.

If the Hawks want to try and go on one more deep run with their legendary core still intact, they need to bring in a different coach. A new voice is never a bad idea when things don’t go well for a long time and that is the case for the current Chicago Blackhawks.