Jay Woodcroft? Todd McLellan? Bruce Boudreau? 10 possible candidates to be the Blackhawks’ next coach

If Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson had waited until the offseason to part ways with coach Luke Richardson, Anders Sorensen may have never gotten a look at the job.

Davidson wouldn’t be hiring an interim coach for next season and likely wouldn’t be willing to take a risk on another person with no NHL head coaching experience. He’d be searching for more certainty. But because Davidson fired Richardson when he did, Sorensen essentially has been given a 56-game trial to prove himself.

Sorensen is highly thought of by Davidson, and Davidson’s decision to promote him reflects that. Sorensen wasn’t the obvious choice to be promoted; Derek King was. He was the Blackhawks’ interim coach when Davidson fired Jeremy Colliton. Sorensen even had been King’s assistant once in Rockford. So for Davidson to bypass King and go to Sorensen, that is telling.

The odds are probably still against Sorensen. His lack of NHL experience could come into play. Coaching in the development-oriented AHL isn’t the same as coaching in the winning-is-everything NHL. He’s also taking over a team that might not be fixable. But you never know. Sorensen may be exactly what the Blackhawks need and it could be his job permanently. It has been done before. Tampa Bay’s Jon Cooper is proof of that.

But if it’s not Sorensen, here are 10 candidates (in no particular order) Davidson could explore hiring after the season.

Jay Woodcroft

Woodcroft is the seventh-most-successful coach in NHL history, if you go by points percentage. In his one full season and two partial seasons in Edmonton, Woodcroft went 79-41-13, winning three playoff rounds in two postseasons. But he was fired after just 13 games last season because the Oilers — expected to be Stanley Cup contenders — stumbled out of the gate with a 3-9-1 record. A longtime NHL assistant who went down to the American Hockey League to win a championship with the Bakersfield Condors before getting called back up to Edmonton, Woodcroft’s track record is hard to argue with. Does the fact that Connor McDavid had his two best seasons with Woodcroft as his coach bode well for Connor Bedard? Or does the fact that the Oilers were a ready-made contender make him an awkward fit for a team that’s still focused on development?

Todd McLellan

McLellan’s name always pops up with openings. He was in the mix during the Columbus Blue Jackets’ search over the summer and the two sides reportedly got far down the line. McLellan has been out of the game since being fired by the Los Angeles Kings in February. He’s had success at all of his head coaching stops, from the Kings to the Oilers to the San Jose Sharks, and has a history of building well-structured, defensively sound teams.

Dave Hakstol

Hakstol wasn’t given a ton of time in his last position with the Seattle Kraken, fired after three seasons. He had been to the playoffs in his second season, but the Kraken failed to get back there in his third season and he was let go. Blackhawks associate general manager Norm Maciver was with the Kraken during Hakstol’s time there, so he’s familiar with him. Hakstol was also the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers after coaching at the University of North Dakota for many years.

Gerard Gallant

Gallant has a history of wearing out his welcome rather quickly — he lasted a little more than two years in Florida, two and a half years in Vegas, and two years in New York. But he had a winning record all of those seasons, reached one Stanley Cup Final (with the expansion Golden Knights) and another conference final (with the Rangers in 2022). Gallant’s resume demands his inclusion, but he’s likely better off with a veteran team than the youth-oriented team the Blackhawks are likely to have next season.

Dave Quinn

Quinn’s NHL resume is pretty underwhelming, as he failed to make the playoffs in all five of his seasons with the Rangers and Sharks. But once you have an NHL job, you always have an NHL job, it seems. Quinn’s success at Boston University still catches the eyes of NHL GMs, and depending on how this season goes with the Penguins, for whom he’s a first-year assistant, he could emerge as a viable candidate.

Jeff Blashill

Blashill, who won the AHL’s Calder Cup in his first season as head coach of the Grand Rapids Griffins, knows all about long-term rebuilds and how frustrating they can be. He was behind the bench in Detroit from 2015-22, ending that seven-year run with six straight seasons out of the playoffs. He’s spent the last three seasons as an assistant under Cooper in Tampa Bay, so he’d bring an appealing perspective, if not exactly the most enticing track record.

Don Granato

Would Granato be up for a second stint in Chicago? “Donny Meatballs” was hired as an assistant under Joel Quenneville and remained on Jeremy Colliton’s staff after Quenneville was fired. Granato has been sitting out this season after being fired by the Buffalo Sabres last spring. He went 122-125-27 in 274 games in four seasons with the Sabres, a team (as with Blashill and Detroit) seemingly stuck in a perpetual rebuild.

Todd Nelson

Nelson has helped turn the Hershey Bears into an AHL juggernaut. The Bears won the Calder Cup in each of the last two seasons (Nelson’s first two behind the bench) and are atop the AHL standings again this season. His only NHL head coaching experience is a 46-game stint with the Oilers in 2014-15, but he’s got 11 seasons as an AHL bench boss mixed in with seven seasons as an NHL assistant, including 2018-22 with the Stars. He’s another coach whose lack of NHL experience should give the Blackhawks pause, but what he’s accomplished in Hershey is tough to ignore.

Jay Leach

Leach is one of those assistants who seems destined to become a head coach sooner than later — much like Richardson when the Blackhawks hired him. After three years as a Kraken assistant, he’s on the Bruins’ staff this season, first with Jim Montgomery and now with Joe Sacco. But, again, unless Sorensen is so impressive for the rest of this season that he forces Davidson’s hand, it’s unlikely the GM will take another chance on a first-time head coach.

Bruce Boudreau

Boudreau hasn’t coached since the Canucks fired him 103 games into his tenure there, and a month away from his 70th birthday, it’s fair to wonder if the league has moved on from one of the biggest personalities and most successful (in the regular season, at least) coaches in modern history. Among NHL coaches with at least 200 games under their belts, Boudreau has the 11th-best all-time points percentage at .626 (617-342-128). His only trip beyond the second round was the memorable 2015 Western Conference final that the Ducks lost to the Blackhawks, but if you’re looking for a guy to get offensive players such as Bedard going, few have a better track record than Boudreau. Would it be successful? Who knows? At least it’d be guaranteed to be entertaining.

(Top photo of Jay Woodcroft: Jeff Vinnick / NHLI via Getty Images)