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Derek King took notes from some of the best — including one who ‘knew who to hug, who to kick in the butt’ — before becoming the Chicago Blackhawks interim coach

phil thompson, chicago tribune
·6 min read
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The last four days have been such a whirlwind for Derek King since he was named Chicago Blackhawks interim coach, he just got home Monday night.

His home in Rockford.

“I went home last night to see my family because they were out,” King said before Tuesday night’s game against the Pittsburgh Penguins at the United Center. “My wife had the two boys, my twins were at a hockey tournament, so when all of this went down, there was nobody at the house. Just the dog-sitter was going over to watch the dogs, so I hadn’t seen them since.

“So I went home, took them for dinner and we just had a good conversation and then that was it — I was back here this morning.”

The circumstances of King’s promotion have been as whiplash-inducing for the former IceHogs coach — who said he never had designs on being an NHL coach — as they have for Hawks players, who are dealing with the fallout from the worst start in franchise history.

The gears turned quickly Saturday. Interim general manager Kyle Davidson was given permission to fire Jeremy Colliton and promote King, and the announcement went out by early afternoon.

King, in fact, had been set to coach against his oldest son, Grand Rapids Griffins defenseman D.J. King, in D.J.’s AHL debut Saturday night, but King’s hurried trip to Chicago that morning scuttled that family milestone.

King has been staying at a hotel for now.

The Hawks started 1-9-2 under Colliton, who said the right things that players repeated, but their glaring errors and lax play showed they weren’t responding to his words anymore.

“I believe Derek King was the right person for the role because he provides the team with an outside voice,” Davidson said at King’s introductory news conference Sunday.

The firing and hiring reminded King of three years ago when Colliton was the IceHogs coach and King was his assistant. Colliton’s sudden promotion to replace Joel Quenneville in Chicago also meant a bump up for King in Rockford.

“Any time you walk into your office and the GM’s there, it’s not good,” King said. “I remember when they let go of Teddy (former IceHogs coach Ted Dent) and I walked in and I saw them both stare at me, I was like, ‘Oh, this can’t be good.’”

Dent was dismissed in 2016-17 after the IceHogs missed the playoffs for the fourth time in Dent’s six seasons.

“The next was when Jeremy went up, and that’s when I walked in and was like, ‘OK, what did I do wrong?’” King said. “And then it was just like, ‘Oh, OK, I’m good, I’m ready for this.’

“This one was a little heavier of a shock. Coming up to the NHL, it’s no easy task.”

It’s a role King wasn’t necessarily expecting or seeking.

“I should say, ‘Yeah, it’s been my dream since I was 5 and I didn’t want to play, I just wanted to coach.’ But no, it wasn’t,” he said. “I’ve been in the NHL, I was fortunate enough to play for a long time. I loved what I did in Rockford and Toronto when I was working with the development of these kids.

“If it came to me, I wasn’t going to say no, but I wasn’t going to go search for it. And this came to me, and especially with this organization, it’s hard to pass it up.”

The Hamilton, Ontario, native played 14 seasons in the NHL, including 11 with the New York Islanders, who drafted him with the 13th pick in 1985.

“I played in a time where the video and the iPads on the bench, there was none of that,” he said. “Coaches coached with feel. They had a feel for the game and they just knew how to manage players, so I had some great coaches that did that.

“Al Arbour was huge,” King said of the former Islanders coach and Blackhawks player. “And I never thought I would say good things about that man until he retired. Because he used to ride me. But then when you retire and you start coaching kids, you understand why he was riding me: to make me a better player, better person. So I take stuff from him.”

Former Toronto Maple Leafs coach Pat Quinn “was another guy like that,” King said.

“He knew how to push buttons: He knew who to hug, who to kick in the butt, and he was excellent at it. I go to Toronto and I’m getting kicked in the butt and yelled at, and I’m wondering why, but I figured it out: I drove these coaches nuts. Now it’s time for guys to drive me nuts.”

King also played on Quenneville’s St. Louis Blues in 1999-2000.

As King wound down his playing career, he dipped his toe in coaching as a player-assistant with the Grand Rapids Griffins from 2002-04. He joined the AHL Toronto Marlies as an assistant coach in 2009-10.

Former Anaheim Ducks and Edmonton Oilers coach Dallas Eakins reached out to King after King’s promotion to Chicago.

“He gave me my first start with the Marlies,” King said of Eakins, who was the Marlies head coach at the time. “He reached out with a little advice ... and just told me to trust yourself and be yourself and you got this.”

After six seasons with the Marlies, King signed on for a season with the OHL Owen Sound Attack in 2015-16.

But it required a three-hour commute from the family’s home in the Toronto area or King staying in Owen Sound. His twin boys were still young at the time.

“It was just a lot, and my little guys were not happy about it,” King said. “I think they’re happy that I’m not home right now, but then, it just wasn’t good timing, so I had to walk away. ... I felt bad for the guys, but I had to pick my family over that.”

King got another opportunity to stay in coaching later in 2016.

“I ended up talking with (IceHogs president of hockey operations) Mark Bernard one day on the phone and he said, ‘Oh, we have a job opening. Come and interview.’ And I’ve been here ever since.”

At least until Saturday, of course, when King’s hockey world turned upside down again.