Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman denied speculation that the firing of assistant coach Mike Kitchen was designed to be a “warning shot directed at coach Joel Quenneville,” reports Brian Hedger for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Bowman is currently at the 2017 World Championships in Cologne, Germany, where he’s scouting in preparation for the offseason. The GM has already made several moves, including firing Kitchen and AHL coach Ted Dent, trading Scott Darling to Carolina, and re-signing Richard Panik to a two-year contract extension.
Those moves set the table for what should be an active offseason in Chicago after the team’s beatdown at the hands of the Predators in the first round of the 2017 playoffs.