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The Blackhawks are closing in on hiring Canadiens assistant Luke Richardson as the team’s new head coach, Frank Seravelli reports.
Richardson played in the NHL for 21 seasons as a defenseman for six different teams between 1987 and 2009. His first job after retirement was as an assistant coach for the Senators, then he became the head coach for the Senators’ AHL team, the Binghamton Senators.
After the 2016 season, Richardson joined the Islanders as an assistant coach for one year before taking a similar assistant job with the Canadiens in ’18. His only experience as an NHL head coach was in the 2021 Stanley Cup finals as the interim coach when then-head coach Dominique Ducharme tested positive for COVID-19.
The Blackhawks fired head coach Jeremy Colliton in November when the team began the season 1-9-2. Colliton originally replaced Joel Quenneville in 2019, and he made the playoffs once in three seasons before getting fired. Derek King finished the season as interim coach, leading the team to a 27-33 record in that span.
