The Chicago Blackhawks announced today the addition of Mike Kitchen as an assistant coach on Joel Quenneville’s staff. In addition, the Blackhawks have re-signed Mike Haviland as an assistant coach.
“Adding Mike Kitchen and bringing back Mike Haviland bolster what is already a tremendous coaching staff under Joel’s guidance,” Blackhawks General Manager Stan Bowman said. “Mike Kitchen and Joel have a great track record of working together and Mike Haviland has had a major impact on our organization’s success based on his work over the last five years.”
Kitchen, 54, spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach with the Florida Panthers after being named to the position in August 2007. The Newmarket, Ontario, native served as the Head Coach of the St. Louis Blues for parts of three seasons from 2003 to 2006, racking up a 38-70-23 record while leading the club to a postseason berth in 2004. Prior to that, Kitchen served as an assistant coach with the Blues from 1998 to 2003, all of which were with Quenneville as the head coach. Together the two have never missed the playoffs and captured the 1999-2000 President’s Cup after leading the Blues to a franchise record 114 points.
Kitchen also spent eight seasons as an assistant coach with the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1990 to 1998, helping the club reach the postseason five times, which includes two appearances in the conference finals. He played eight seasons in the National Hockey League as a defenseman, collecting 74 points (12G, 62A) and 370 penalty minutes in 474 regular-season games with the Colorado Rockies (1976-82) and New Jersey Devils (1982-84). Kitchen and Quenneville were teammates in Colorado and New Jersey from 1979 to 1983. Mike and his wife Jill have two daughters, Amy and Megan.
Haviland, 43, enters his third season as an assistant coach for the Blackhawks in 2010-11 after being named to the coaching staff on July 23, 2008. The Middletown, New Jersey native came to the Blackhawks after spending the three seasons as the head coach of the organization’s American Hockey League affiliate in Norfolk (2005-07) and Rockford (2007-08). His teams have never missed the playoffs during his nine years behind the bench, which includes his seven-year minor league coaching career.
In addition to being a member of the 2010 Stanley Cup Champion Blackhawks, Haviland has also captured the East Coast Hockey League’s Kelly Cup in 2003 with the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies and in 2005 with the Trenton Titans. In 2007-08, Haviland guided the IceHogs to a 44-26-4-6 regular-season record (.613) before taking the squad to the second round of the playoffs. Haviland posted a .600 or better winning percentage in six of his seven seasons as a head coach and never finished with a winning percentage lower than .588.
Haviland began his professional coaching career as an assistant for Trenton in 1999 before becoming head coach of the Boardwalk Bullies in 2001. After a one-year stop as the head coach of the Titans (2004-05), he joined the Blackhawks organization when he was named head coach of the Norfolk Admirals in 2005-06. Haviland earned the Louis A.R. Pieri Memorial Award, given annually to the AHL’s most outstanding coach, following Norfolk’s 2006-07 campaign. He played two years of professional hockey, including four games with the AHL’s Binghamton Whalers in 1989-90 and the ECHL’s Richmond Renegades and Winston-Salem Thunderbirds in 1990- 91 before an injury cut his career short.