The Chicago Blackhawks enter the offseason with some optimism, especially after finishing last in the Central Division last season. The Blackhawks have a nice group of young players, led by star Connor Bedard, and will be coached by Jeff Blashill, who should help turn things around.
Blashill has prior head coaching experience, being the head coach with the Detroit Red Wings, whom he coached from 2015 to 2022, his hometown team, as he was born in Detroit, Michigan. Even though Blashill may be the right guy to coach the Blackhawks, one of his former players feels otherwise and didn’t hold back in criticizing his former coach.
Utah Mammoths defenseman doesn’t mince his words when talking about Blashill
Before Blashill can even coach and get a game under his belt with the Blackhawks, he is already drawing criticism for how he coaches, with one of his former players, Utah Mammoth defenseman Mikhail Sergachev, who sounded off on how terrible Blashill was when he had him as a coach with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Sergachev was with the Lightning from 2017 to 2024, and was under Blashill when he was their assistant coach, and said on the “Smol Talk” podcast (a Russian hockey podcast) that Blashill came in and completely changed their system after they had gone to three finals.
Sergachev on Blashill:
“And then we changed our system – the coach from Detroit came in. I mean, we had gone to three finals, and this guy comes in and says: ‘We’re not playing like that anymore. Now we’re playing like [explative] Vegas.’ And we’re all like, ‘Why?’ He goes, ‘They have a better system. It’ll work for us.’ Well, it didn’t work for me. Didn’t work for anyone. Everyone ended up with a negative plus-minus, we were all getting outscored.”
Blashill, in his two seasons as the Lightning’s assistant coach, went 138-86-20, while he went 204-261-72 with the Red Wings.
The future is now for the Chicago Blackhawks
The Blackhawks have been relatively quiet this offseason, outside of hiring Blashill, making a few trades, and selecting Anton Frondell third overall in this year’s draft. The management of the Blackhawks has decided not to sign veterans after the production they got from them last season, and instead is focused on their young core.
Blashill has a tough job ahead of him, but there is enough talent on the roster to get things turned around. This upcoming 2025-2026 season marks the 100th season in the Blackhawks’ history, and hopefully, it will be better than last season.
Former player shares why Chicago Blackhawks selected Anton Frondell
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