The Chicago Blackhawks surprised the fanbase late yesterday afternoon by announcing the hiring of NHL coaching veteran Marc Crawford as an assistant coach. Not many people expected another coach to be hired, and especially not one with a pedigree like Crawford.
Marc Crawford comes off a season where he finished as the interim head coach of the contentious Ottawa Senators. His record with the Senators was 7–10–1 after being thrown into a virtually impossible situation. Before being named interim coach, he served as an assistant under Guy Boucher in Ottawa.
Throughout his 24-year NHL coaching career, the 58-year-old Bellville, Ontario, native has amassed an impressive record of 556–431–103–79 in 1,169 games in Quebec, Colorado, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Dallas and Ottawa. In 1996, Crawford led the newly relocated Colorado Avalanche over the Florida Panthers in the Stanley Cup final. That Cup is his only NHL coaching championship to date.
In 1998, he was named the head coach of the Canadian Olympic team, but the team fell short of a medal, eventually losing to the Czech Republic in a shootout.
Crawford was also helpful in the pre-draft development of Toronto Maple Leafs and Team USA center Auston Matthews when Matthews played for him for the 2015–16 season in the Swiss National League for ZSC Lion. During his tenure in Switzerland, Crawford won the Swiss Championship, the Swiss Cup and three different regular season championship titles.
Blackhawks head coach Jeremy Colliton can only benefit from the added years of experience next to him behind the bench. Assistants Sheldon Brookbank and Tomas Mitell have very limited NHL coaching experience, so Crawford can be leaned on for his veteran coaching presence and knowledge much like Don Granato and Barry Smith were leaned on last season.
It should also be noted that assistant video coach Dylan Crawford is Marc’s son.