Joel Quenneville facing Panthers for first time four years after resignation
Four years to the day after resigning as head coach of the Florida Panthers, Joel Quenneville is back behind the bench in Sunrise on Tuesday, this time as an opponent as the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks.
“It’s been awhile,” Quenneville said after the Ducks’ practice Monday in Fort Lauderdale.
There’s good reason for that.
Quenneville’s resignation on Oct. 28, 2021, came in the wake of an extensive report from Chicago law firm Jenner & Block detailing the Chicago Blackhawks’ mishandling of a 2010 sexual assault allegation made by former Blackhawks forward Kyle Beach against then-Blackhawks video coach Brad Aldrich. The report detailed a meeting of “senior club management” on the day the Chicago beat the San Jose Sharks to reach the 2010 Stanley Cup Finals. Quenneville, who was the Blackhawks’ head coach at the time, was listed as an attendee.
The report became public on Oct. 26, 2021. Beach, who was previously unnamed in the report, revealed himself as the accuser in an interview with The Sports Network’s “SportsCentre” one day later and asserted Quenneville knew about his allegation.
“There’s absolutely no way that he can deny knowing it,” Beach told the Canadian sports network, with the interview playing about an hour before the Panthers hosted the Boston Bruins in what ultimately became Quenneville’s final game with the franchise. “I witnessed meetings, right after I reported it ... that were held in Joel Quenneville’s office.”
This contradicted a statement from Quenneville in which he asserted to the Associated Press that he learned of the allegation “through the media earlier this summer.”
Quenneville, along with Panthers general manager Bill Zito and then-Panthers CEO Matt Caldwell, met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman on Oct. 28, 2021, in New York. Bettman at the time said he wanted to make sure Quenneville “felt he had a fair opportunity to tell me his account of what happened.”
“Ultimately,” Bettman added, “he decided it was best to resign.”
The Panthers moved on after Quenneville’s resignation. They won the Presidents’ Trophy that year under interim coach Andrew Brunette and reached the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs. And then they hired Paul Maurice that offseason and began a run of three consecutive trips to the Stanley Cup Final, including winning the title each of the past two seasons.
Quenneville watched from afar while spending that time exiled from the league in which he served as a head coach for 25 seasons and won 969 games — second all-time behind only the legendary Scotty Bowman.
“There’s a lot of guys here that I was happy for, so that was part of it,” said Quenneville, who went 79-40-13 in his two-plus season tenure with the Panthers. “And it wasn’t like the circumstances were whatever happened happened, but at the same time, it’s the way it was. It’s the way it is. I had some exposure to some good players and got to learn from them as well. Our business is the way it is.”
The NHL announced on July 1, 2024, that Quenneville, Stan Bowman and Al MacIsaac were eligible to seek employment in the league again after being banned for nearly three years. Bowman, who served as the Blackhawks’ general manager, is now the general manager of the Edmonton Oilers, who have reached the Stanley Cup Final each of the past two years. MacIsaac, who was Chicago’s senior vice president of hockey operations, is not employed in the league.
“While it is clear that, at the time, their responses were unacceptable, each of these three individuals [Messrs. Bowman, MacIsaac and Quenneville] has acknowledged that and used his time away from the game to engage in activities which, not only demonstrate sincere remorse for what happened, but also evidence greater awareness of the responsibilities that all NHL personnel have, particularly personnel who are in positions of leadership,” the league said in its statement then. “Moreover, each has made significant strides in personal improvement by participating in myriad programs, many of which focused on the imperative of responding in effective and meaningful ways to address alleged acts of abuse. The League expects that they will continue this commitment in any future capacity with the NHL and/or one of our Clubs.”
Quenneville’s return to the league comes with a young Anaheim team that is looking to return to the upper echelon of the NHL. The Ducks entered Tuesday with a 4-3-1 record and are seventh in the NHL in goals scored per game (3.63).
And they face a tough test in the Panthers who, despite dealing with a slew of injuries, play a team-centric physical game that has led to their success in recent years.
“Across the board, they play a hard team game,” Quenneville said of the Panthers. “Everybody is connected, they’re in the puck area, all the little things away from the [puck] that lead to goals. They do all the little things well, and they seem to feed off of that.”
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