The New Jersey Devils announced today that the team has named Jeremy Colliton as assistant coach to join head coach Sheldon Keefe’s staff. Colliton completes the on-ice coaching staff which includes fellow assistants Ryan McGill, Chris Taylor, Sergei Brylin, and Goaltending Coach Dave Rogalski. The announcement was made by President/General Manager Tom Fitzgerald.
Colliton was most recently head coach of the Abbotsford Canucks, Vancouver’s AHL affiliate, for the past two seasons. In his two regular seasons at the helm of Abbotsford, he posted identical records of 40-25-7 and led them to the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Colliton also has head coaching experience in the National Hockey League, serving as the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks for parts of four seasons (2018-19 to 2021-22). At the time of his hiring, he was the youngest coach in the NHL and over his tenure guided the Blackhawks to a record of 87-92-26 (.488 points %). At the time of his hiring by the Blackhawks on November 6, 2018, Colliton was coaching his second season with their AHL affiliate in Rockford. In 2017-18, his first season with Rockford, the team advanced to the Western Conference Finals. Colliton finished with a career record of 46-31-0-11 in 88 games with the IceHogs.
The 39-year-old has also served as head coach for Mora IK in HockeyAllsvenskan, between 2013-14 and 2016-17. At the time, HockeyAllsvenskan was in Sweden’s second league, and he led the team to SHL promotion in his final season with the club.
Colliton was originally named assistant coach for Team Canada at the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing, before taking over the head coaching duties when Claude Julien was unable to serve in the capacity due to an injury.
A native of Blackie, Alberta, the New York Islanders selected Colliton in the second round, 58th overall, at the 2003 NHL Draft. He played six seasons in the Islanders’ organization at the NHL and AHL levels, from 2005-06 through 2011-12. The center scored three goals and three assists in 57 career NHL games and while in the American Hockey League with Bridgeport, scored 203 points (77g-126a) in 326 AHL games. Colliton represented his home country at the 2003 World Junior Under-18 Championships (Gold), 2004 World Junior Championship (Gold) and 2005 World Juniors (Silver).
