NEWSLETTER
Kyle Davidson and the Chicago Blackhawks have plenty of work to do despite their season-ending on Friday night. ESPN NHL insider Emily Kaplan reports this morning that Marc Crawford and Rob Cookson will not be returning to the team after a meeting with Kyle Davidson in recent days.
News: Blackhawks GM Kyle Davidson met with assistant coaches Rob Cookson and Marc Crawford they will not be returning to the organization next year, sources told ESPN.
— Emily Kaplan (@emilymkaplan) May 1, 2022
Marc Crawford joined former head coach Jeremy Colliton’s coaching staff in June of 2019, and Rob Cookson joined the Blackhawks this season as an assistant coach and the associate head coach to interim head coach Derek King after Jeremy Colliton’s dismissal in November.
Before joining the Blackhawks, Cookson was an assistant coach with HC Lugano of the National League in Switzerland from December 2019 to April 2021, where he coached current Blackhawks forward Philipp Kurashev. Cookson also boasts 11 years of experience as an NHL assistant coach.
It’s hardly surprising to see movement on the coaching staff for the Blackhawks in the early going of the offseason since they’ll be undertaking a search for a permanent head coach shortly. Whoever ends up behind the Blackhawks bench next season surely will want autonomy over his assistant coaches, whether that be Derek King or otherwise. We’re yet to hear anything about the head coaching search from Kyle Davidson, but the rookie Blackhawks GM will be speaking with the media on Tuesday, and I’m sure that the timeline for the search process will be a topic of discussion.
Davidson has been active in recent weeks, hiring Jeff Greenberg as one of his two Associate General Managers, handing out contract extensions to Reese Johnson and Sam Lafferty, and now making changes on the coaching staff.
