Better hope things go better the second time around if the Blackhawks hire Jeff Blashill

All signs seem to point toward Jeff Blashill likely being named the Chicago Blackhawks' next head coach.

While not the most exciting name on the head coaching market, Blashill is at least experienced in guiding a team through a rebuild. He was the head coach who followed Mike Babcock in Detroit, and first he was tasked with keeping Detroit's impressive playoff streak going.

He did manage to get the Red Wings to the playoffs in his first season, but it became clear that the Red Wings' postseason run was over. Detroit then shifted toward a rebuild, where, in the end, players got better under Blashill.

The problem with Blashill is that the Red Wings never emerged from their rebuild under him.

Although it sounds like it was not all his fault.

Hey, if he can navigate the Red Wings to a 74-point season, then he should fit right in with the Blackhawks.

That is where he left the Red Wings in 2022 after Detroit decided to move on from Blashill after seven seasons. Considering it has been a while since the Blackhawks have come close to winning 30 games, his record shows he is capable of at least raising the team's floor as a coach.

The concern around Blashill is wondering if things will go better the second time around if he is named the Hawks' new head coach.

Meaning, can he not only develop the team's young talent into solid to great NHL players, but can he also guide them to the playoffs?

That is the missing piece on his resume.

He did go to Tampa after being let go and has served as an assistant there, so hopefully, being in that organization has helped enhance his coaching skills.

It feels like the logic behind hiring Blashill is taking his head coaching experience of going through a bottoming-out, and combining his time in Tampa, makes him a better leader who completes the process.

That is what this head coaching search should be about--finding the person who can develop the young talent and then lead those players to playoff success.

That is why removing the interim tag from Anders Sorenson feels short-sighted. Giving him a shot to develop the players would be a band-aid since all he has is this small sample size of the Hawks just being a bit better under him than they were under Luke Richardson.

The whole point of Richardson's hiring was to take the team through bottoming out into the rebuild stage and then onto winning. He just turned out to not be that guy.

While Blashill does have a lot more losses on his NHL coaching resume, he at least has a track record of being a guy capable of developing talent. The bet is that he not only does it again with the Blackhawks but also finishes the job by leading the team to the playoffs.