Well, the Hawks signed Joel Quenneville a few months ago to be a scout. Dennis Savard was in a no win situation with "coach" Quenneville too close to the front office and ready to take over as soon as possible.
You can also wonder if Savard hung himself by starting Nikolai Khabibulin twice in 4 games. GM Dale Tallon signed free agent Cristobal Huet for millions of dollars in the off season to be the new no 1 goaltender. Tallon didn't signed Huet to be on the bench...
Savard may be better suited as an assistant coach than a coach. He is some kind of a cheerleader and a one of the boy kind of guy.