Everything you need to know about the Blackhawks new coach

Now that the Colorado Avalanche are the Stanley Cup champions and the season is over, the offseason is officially underway. Teams aren’t waiting. There were reports of it last week but the Chicago Blackhawks made it officially official on Monday morning that they have a new head coach.

Luke Richardson is going to be the 40th head coach in franchise history. That is exciting news as this Chicago Blackhawks team needs something new. He isn’t from the organization which is something that might be a really good thing right now. Kyle Davidson did this right.

Luke Richardson is someone that deserves this opportunity in the National Hockey League. He had over 1400 games played with the Edmonton Oilers, Toronto Maple Leafs, Philadelphia Flyers, Columbus Blue Jackets, Ottawa Senators, and Tampa Bay Lightning.

He was obviously a really good defenseman as he had over 20 years playing in the NHL. He only scored 35 goals and 166 assists for 201 points but he was clearly on the defensive side of things. Not bad for the 7th overall pick in the 1987 draft.

The Chicago Blackhawks have hired Luke Richardson to be their new coach.

As far as coaching, he has a lot of experience with that as well. He has 8 years under his belt as an assistant manager and another four as an AHL head coach. One of his years as a Montreal Canadiens assistant coach ended in the Stanley Cup Final (2020-21).

He has learned his trade well. This is a really nice hire for the Chicago Blackhawks as they look to get their team going in the right direction. Of course, this roster is going to be hard to coach. we don’t know the future of the team’s best players right now but that should be figured out soon.

Either way, 2022-23 is going to be a hard year for this team. They have a better chance at drafting Connor Bedard with the first overall pick than they do making it to the playoffs regardless of who their coach is. That is a good reason to give this guy a chance.

This is a man with a lot of experience playing and behind the bench. He was also, as mentioned before, a defensive defenseman which always can translate into being a good coach because you see the game through the coach’s eyes as a player in that instance.

If you are able to muster up 1400 games as a defensive defenseman, you have to know the game very well and he clearly does. This is a magnificent hire by the Chicago Blackhawks as the rebuild is now fully underway.