The Chicago Blackhawks introduced Jeff Blashill with a press conference last Tuesday morning. He sat alongside GM Kyle Davidson and spoke a lot about the team, his plans, and everything else that comes with taking on a job like this.
One of the things Blashill touched on was the coaching staff under him. He confirmed that Anders Sorensen would return as an assistant coach while Jimmy Waite would remain the goalie coach. Each of these men have done a great job in the roles that they’ve had in the organization.
Blashill also confirmed that Michael Peca will be brought in to be another assistant coach. Peca, a multi-time Selke Trophy winner as a player, served on Peter Laviolette’s New York Rangers staff for the last handful of years.
A third assistant coach wasn’t named right away but we know who that is now. Mike Vellucci has been hired onto the staff. There were rumors of this hiring for a couple of weeks now but the Blackhawks made it official on Monday.
“I’m looking forward to working alongside Mike, who has excelled behind the bench at every level, as both a head and assistant coach,” said Jeff Blashill. “Serving as an assistant coach at the World Championship this summer and winning a gold medal for our country alongside Frank Nazar and Alex Vlasic will bring such valuable experience to this group. That kind of championship-caliber background only makes our team better, and I’m excited to get to work.”
Vellucci, along with his role with Team USA at the World Championships, has been an assistant coach under Mike Sullivan with the Pittsburgh Penguins since 2020. He was also the GM and head coach of their AHL team, the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, in 2019-20.
Before his time in the Penguins organization, Vellucci was the Carolina Hurricanes Assistant General Manager and Director of Hockey Operations from 2014-19. From 2017-19, he was the Head Coach for the Charlotte Checkers, Carolina’s AHL affiliate at the time, where he led the team to its first Calder Cup. They went 51-17-8 during the regular season.
This is a coach that brings a lot of experience in a lot of areas. Success has followed Vellucci everywhere he’s gone. Chicago hit a home run with this hire.
So now all three assistant coaches are official under Jeff Blashill. Matt Meacham is the video coach, and Adam Gill is the assistant video coach to go with Jimmy Waite as the goaltending coach.
