Report: David Carle Withdraws from Blackhawks Coaching Search

Chicago Blackhawks general manager Kyle Davidson has a very busy summer ahead of him. The most important item on his offseason to-do list is to hire a new head coach, and his top candidate appears to be out of the running.

According to Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman, David Carle has withdrawn his name from consideration for the Blackhawks coaching job. Friedman added that the Blackhawks made an aggressive pursuit. Chris Peters of FloHockey said he’d be surprised if Carle takes any NHL job this summer. As one of the top coaching prospects, he can wait for the perfect situation. Apparently, that wasn’t Chicago.

Many Blackhawks fans wanted Carle to be the next head coach. He has a track record of success at the college level with Denver and back-to-back gold medals for Team USA at the World Junior Championships. He works well with young players and has already coached a few of their top prospects. The Blackhawks’ front office had a lot of experience watching Denver games while scouting prospect Aidan Thompson.

Carle has made it clear that he wouldn’t leave Denver for any NHL job. The Blackhawks have many selling points, like a core of exciting young players led by Connor Bedard. He’d get to coach an Original 6 franchise while living in a world-class city. Plus, there wouldn’t be much pressure to win right away. He’d have time to adjust and adapt to the NHL as the Blackhawks progress. This wasn’t enough for Davidson to get Carle to leave Denver and come to the Windy City.

Personally, I’d prefer a head coach with NHL head coaching experience. This team needs a coach with a presence who can command the room. They haven’t had a guy in the locker room like that since Joel Quenneville was fired in 2018. Plenty of good candidates are still out there, and a few new ones might become available soon. We’ll tackle some of those potential coaches tomorrow.