Kevin Dean is back with the Chicago Blackhawks as an assistant coach, looking to implement a new defensive philosophy

When former Boston Bruins assistant coach Kevin Dean took a job as an assistant with the Chicago Blackhawks, he had no illusions about what he was getting himself into.

“They said it’s going to be a lot of patience. Exercise some patience,” Dean said Thursday during his introduction at Fifth Third Arena. “It’s going to be clunky at times, but we’re going to want to be on a trajectory up.”

Dean will be in charge of the defense under first-time head coach Luke Richardson. The Hawks are going through a rebuild to boot, so there has been an influx of new faces since Kyle Davidson became the permanent general manager.

“We didn’t spend a ton of time on (discussing) a ‘rebuild,’” Dean said, “but it’s going to be some younger players, (so) let’s be patient and teach them how to play hockey the right way.

“All of a sudden, a couple of years in the league, they start to find their game, they become impact players, they’ve got good habits and some depth and you become a good hockey team.

“And it doesn’t take forever to do that.”

Here are five things we learned from development camp.

It’s not a dig. Dean and Richardson had no previous connection to each other than occasionally running across each other as you typically do through the course of an NHL season.

Said Dean: “I was let go, or not renewed, in Boston, so I was making calls and I texted Luke early in the process and Luke was very forthright and got back to me right away and said be patient and see where it goes.

“When Chicago got a little more comfortable and started to talk to people, it went well from there.”

Dean knows what he brings to Chicago’s situation.

“Coming into a team that’s going to be a little bit younger, I think my strength is on the defensive side of the puck and I just want to come here and bring a good attitude and good energy and teach these young defensemen.”

Being a Blackhawks defenseman is something Dean is familiar with. The left-shot defenseman was traded twice during the 1999-2000 season and then-Dallas Star landed in Chicago in February 2000.

“I think it’s a great place to play, great city,” Dean said of Chicago. “We weren’t great when I played here but it was great playing. The United Center is one of the best venues to play in the world. The nights that we had good crowds and the game was tight was awesome.”

Dean’s Hawks finished third in the Central Division his first season and the next season they finished fourth.

“It’s such a great sports town in general. It’s a great town. I grew up not far from here,” the Madison, Wis., native said. “I have a special place in my heart for Chicago and the Blackhawks.

“I left and they got better right away,” he laughed. “They got better a couple years later. They had some good drafts not long after and they started turning the ship around pretty quickly.

“It was fun to watch those teams. The 2010s, they were something else.”

It seems as if Dean’s philosophy boils down to this: If you go anywhere on the ice, go hard.

“We’re going to compete, we’re going to close hard, we’re going to transition fast, we’re going to get our pucks to the net,” Dean said. “Those are basics we want to harp on and fundamentals we expect all our defensemen to work on.”

Jeremy Colliton and Marc Crawford employed what has been termed a “half-man” coverage, but Dean said he and Richardson are “aligned” that they prefer playing zone.

“More in the D-zone, not man-on-man. That’s going to be up to Luke to firm that up,” Dean said. “Close hard when it’s your turn to close, separate when it’s your turn to separate, get some support from the low forward and get going the other way.

“But not man-on-man where you’re following around the guy the whole time.”

Speed, that is. And if they don’t possess flat-out speed, they at least have to have a motor.

That was the idea behind signing Andreas Athanasiou, Max Domi and some of the other free agents the Hawks have signed since Wednesday..

“With Andreas, one of the faster players in our league,” Davidson said of the 6-foot-2 forward. “Bring up the speed factor on our team. Max can play up in that top-six area where he can bring a good pace of play but also a really high compete level, which we want to bring up in our group.

“Colin Blackwell is heart and soul, motor never stops. Really happy to get him and drive that work rate up a bit higher.”

Strome and Dominik Kubalík were restricted free agents with arbitration rights, and neither were tendered qualifying offers.

Kubalík signed a two-year deal ($2.5 million cap hit) with the Detroit Red Wings and Strome inked a one-year deal with the Washington Capitals for $3.5 million.

“It was more the uncertainty around cost,” Davidson said. “Both had arb rights, and so the arbitration process just brings a little bit more uncertainty and it drags out a little further into the summer.”

Davidson wants to stay flexible with his budget.

“Again, it’s not easy walking away from good players and good people as Dylan and Dominik are,” he said, “but we just felt this was something that gave us more certainty in our budgeting.”

The Hawks also didn’t re-sign goalie Kevin Lankinen, an unrestricted free agent. Lankinen signed a one-year deal with the Nashville Predators.

“There were a lot of options for goalies out there this year,” Davidson said. “It just didn’t work out. I think he was maybe looking for a change, or we just couldn’t work something out.”

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The Hawks signed Alex Stalock, who will back up Petr Mrázek.