Former Blackhawks interim head coach lands on his feet with new job

Former Chicago Blackhawks interim head coach Derek King is going back to the AHL.

King has been named the head coach of the Hershey Bears. Hershey is the AHL affiliate of the Washington Capitals.

King was looking for a job after spending the past three seasons as an assistant coach for Luke Richardson. He was not retained after new head coach Jeff Blashill and the front office decided to keep interim coach Anders Sorenson as an assistant along with adding Michael Peca and Mike Vellucci from outside the organization.

King helped the Hawks get through a huge transition and controversial time.

It was a dark time for the Hawks at the beginning of the 2021-22 season. The Jenner Report came out in October 2021, which detailed the role then general manager Stan Bowman played in the cover up of the alleged sexual assault former video coach Brad Aldrich committed toward former first-round pick Kyle Beach during the 2010 Stanley Cup run.

Bowman resigned and Kyle Davidson was named interim general manager.

The team then got off to a 1-9-2 start. Davidson made the decision to fire head coach Jeremy Colliton. He tabbed King, who was the organization's head coach for the AHL affiliate, the Rockford IceHogs, to guide the team for the rest of the season on an interim basis.

He did a solid job as the Hawks went 27-33-10 during the rest of the season. His mild-mannered approach was needed to get the organization through a team that was transitioning into an extensive rebuild.

That earned him a spot on Richardson's staff as an assistant. King was not tabbed to be the interim head coach this past season when Richardson was fired. Instead, Sorenson was brought in from Rockford to coach out the season.

The Hawks keeping Sorenson on Blashill's staff made King expendable.

King returns to his AHL roots where he was a long-time assistant for the Toronto Marlies and the IceHogs.

This will be his second head coaching gig in the AHL after he coached the IceHogs from November 6, 2018, through the early part of the 2021 season.