Chicago Blackhawks: 3 bold replacements for Jeremy Colliton

Kevin Dineen

The Chicago Blackhawks would be smart to consider bringing back Kevin Dineen.

When the Chicago Blackhawks fired Joel Quenneville to hire Jeremy Colliton in 2018, Kevin Dineen was also fired as an assistant coach. He was one of the assistant coaches when they won the Stanley Cup in 2015 and did a very good job. Letting him go was a very bad mistake by Stan Bowman.

Now would be a great time to bring him back if Derek King doesn’t return. This would be his second stint as an NHL head coach as he was with the Florida Panthers for a couple of seasons about a decade ago. That experience was something that was good for him as he tries to make it as a coach.

He is probably going to be an NHL again sometime soon. Since being fired by the Hawks, he has had some interesting jobs in the sport. He spent time as the head coach of the San Diego Gulls who are the AHL affiliate of the Anaheim Ducks. He didn’t return when his contract was up but he had a good amount of success there.

In August of 2021, the New Jersey Devils hired him to be the head coach of their AHL affiliate Utica Comets. So far, they are the best team in the AHL and are a serious Calder Cup contender. He is looking like a coach in the AHL that should be back in the NHL in short order. Keep an eye on the Comets as they continue to have one of the best starts in AHL history.

Prior to being hired by Chicago back in 2014, he also had a significant amount of success as the head coach of Team Canada, including a Gold Medal in the Olympic Games for the women’s team. All of these different jobs should lead to a wealth of knowledge that would serve him well in the NHL again. If the Hawks wanted to go that route, he would be a great hire.