The Blackhawks fired coach Luke Richardson on Thursday after a dismal start to the season.
Despite expectations of taking a step forward within the rebuild this season, the Hawks sit in last place in the NHL again with an 8-16-2 record.
Richardson finishes his 2.5-year tenure with a 57-118-15 record, one of the worst marks in history — although he wasn’t given much talent to work with. The Hawks’ 4-2 loss to the Bruins on Wednesday marked the final nail in his coffin, as it turns out.
Anders Sorensen, who was previously coaching the Hawks’ AHL affiliate in Rockford, will take over as the interim coach starting Saturday against the Jets. Hawks assistant general manager Mark Eaton will subsequently take over as Rockford’s interim coach.
“Today I made the difficult decision to move on from Luke as our head coach. We thank him for his efforts and contributions to the organization and our community,” Hawks general manager Kyle Davidson said in a statement.
“As we have begun to take steps forward in our rebuilding process, we felt that the results did not match our expectations for a higher level of execution this season and ultimately came to the decision that a change was necessary. We wish Luke and his family all the best moving forward.”
Hawks chairman Danny Wirtz said in a statement that he “fully supports” Davidson’s decision to fire Richardson and maintains the “utmost confidence in him and the rest of our hockey operations team as they begin their search for the next head coach.”
This story will be updated.