A former Florida Panthers head coach is back in the NHL.
Joel Quenneville was hired by the Anaheim Ducks on Thursday, the team announced.
The Stanley Cup winning bench boss now joins his fifth NHL franchise as a head coach.
“This is the organization I wanted to restart my career with and am truly grateful for this opportunity,” Quenneville said in a statement released by the team. “The Ducks have incredible ownership, management and passionate fans. In nearly four years away from the game, I have learned from my prior mistakes and realized it will be actions over words that demonstrate my commitment to being a better leader.”
Quenneville coached Florida from 2019 until seven games into the 2021-22, when he resigned from the Panthers following the fallout of the investigation into the Chicago Blackhawks treatment of Kyle Beach.
An independent report that was completed in October of 2021 outlined the failures by the Blackhawks organization in addressing allegations made by Beach regarding sexual assault at the hands of Chicago’s then-video coach, Brad Aldrich.
The allegations were made as Chicago was embarking on their Stanley Cup run in 2010.
Eventually, the NHL ruled that three members of the Blackhawks, former GM Stan Bowman, former executive Al MacIsaac, and Quenneville, were essentially banned from working for any teams in the league.
The Blackhawks organization was also fined $2 million.
Less than three years later, in July of 2024, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman lifted the ban, with the league saying in a statement:
“While it is clear that, at the time, their responses were unacceptable, each of these three individuals 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. 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.”
That same month, Bowman was hired to be the next general manager of the Edmonton Oilers.
Quenneville had been overseeing the start of the Panthers ultimate turnaround, as he and Florida General Manager Bill Zito had begun reshaping the team with veteran additions like Patric Hornqvist and Radko Gudas to surround their core of Sasha Barkov, Aaron Ekblad, Jonathan Huberdeau and Sergei Bobrovsky.
Following Quenneville’s resignation, Florida briefly handed the keys to one of Quenneville’s assistants, Andrew Brunette, and the Panthers went on to win the Presidents’ Trophy that season.
That offseason, however, Zito and his staff decided to take their gritty, skilled team and shift ideologies, hiring a defensive-minded head coach who had been in the league for three decades in Paul Maurice.
It’s worked out nicely for the Panthers, who have reached the second round of the playoffs in four straight seasons and won the Stanley Cup in their second of back-to-back trips to the final in each of the past two postseasons.
We’ll see how things work out for Quenneville, now 66 years old, with his new team out west.
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