Blackhawks: Is Jeremy Colliton “coaching” on thin ice?

With the departure of team president John McDonough, I can ask my question, who is next to go? Would a new team president keep Stan Bowman and Jeremy Colliton with the Chicago Blackhawks?

Okay, that was kind of a hockey reference. “Coaching on thin ice.” I mean, that was clever. Jeremy Colliton has been the coach of the Chicago Blackhawks since early November of 2018. He’s what many people call “the guy after the guy.”

What does that mean? Well, Joel Quenneville was “the guy” who brought Chicago three Stanley Cups. Now, Colliton is just a guy after “the guy”. I know I’d rather be the coach after Colliton, not after Quenneville.

So, if the Blackhawks go with an outside hire, does Stan Bowman get removed as the team’s general manager? It would be worst if they promoted him to stay with the team as an executive. How many more strings should he be allowed to pull?

Let’s go with this scenario. The Blackhawks bring in an outside hire. This outside hire as team president wants his own general manager. A new general manager would want a new head coach, he wouldn’t want to keep Colliton. Colliton is Bowman’s guy, not the new general manager’s guy.

So, I’d say, yes, Colliton is on very thin ice. He’s on thin ice because Bowman is on thinner ice, ice that has a crack in it.

If the Blackhawks don’t clean house and go with an outside hire, there will be more upsetting seasons. They need to change the culture in Chicago. That is something the Bulls are doing. It’s something the Cubs did and it brought them their first World Series in 108 seasons.

The White Sox are somewhat doing the same thing, it’s something we’ll have to wait and see on. Most importantly for me, the Blackhawks need to do this. They need three new outside hires. They bring in an outside hired team president. That new president finds a new general manager, which brings in a new coach.

It’s a simple situation, something that the Blackhawks could botch big time. If they can bring in the right people, the next 10-15 years can be very successful. If they mess up on these hires, they’ll have to tear the ship down again.

If I had it my way, everyone is gone. Of course, the Wirtz family owns the team, so anyone with the last name Wirtz can stay. They need to hire new scouts, new executives, a new general manager, new coaches, everything.

Let’s see what the Blackhawks decide to do. Just don’t disappoint me as you did in 2017.