Why Luke Richardson might not be the coach of the future for the Chicago Blackhawks

Entering his third season as the Chicago Blackhawks head coach, Luke Richardson and the Hawks have been at the bottom of the league throughout his tenure as the Hawks continue rebuilding.

His record over the three seasons he's been with the Hawks isn't going to be very good (51-105-14), but with general manager Kyle Davidson adding seven players in free agency, you need to see some sort of improvement from year to year.

Just looking at the record won't paint the whole picture of how Richardson has done as the Head Coach. You want to see that he is getting the most out of his players and developing players to reach their full potential.

For a team hoping to be on the rise and push for the playoffs in a few years, player development is critical in getting the team to take that next step.

Poor Lineup Decisions

To this point, though, he hasn't done a good job at all. Through six games this season, we have seen Lukas Reichel scratched through four games, and then when he was finally put in the lineup, he got buried on the fourth line between 35-year-old Craig Smith and 36-year-old Pat Maroon.

To make matters worse he was put at center which if you remember the experiment they had with him at center last season, that's not his position.

He is more effective as a winger. It only took for some guys getting injured to be put back on a line with Andreas Athanasiou where his line was the only one that scored in their 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres. It's not just this season either, last year Reichel was in and out of the lineup many times with no consistency.

Not only Reichel, but Nolan Allan after a strong camp and even starting the first game of the season against Utah and playing well ended up with him back in the press box for two straight games. With Wyatt Kaiser healthy again it made Allan the odd man out. He is only now getting put back into the lineup because Alec Martinez suffered a lower-body injury and was put on injured reserve.

Isaak Phillips is another younger defenseman who hasn't been able to get consistent playing time under Luke Richardson. He is now 23 and has appeared in 53 games for the Blackhawks. With how poorly T.J. Brodie has started this season, you would think a guy like Phillips would get a shot at earning some playing time.