Joel Quenneville is returning to the NHL as the 12th coach of the Anaheim Ducks.
Quenneville is an NHL coach for the first time in more than three years as he replaces Greg Cronin, who was fired by the Ducks on April 19.
Before the hire became official, TSN’s Darren Dreger reported that the Ducks conducted an extensive background check on Quenneville, including his work to reform from mistakes he made in the handling of a player’s sexual assault allegations toward a video coach. ESPN’s Emily Kaplan added the team spoke with the player, Kyle Beach, too.
Quenneville resigned as coach of the Florida Panthers on Oct. 29, 2021, in the wake of a sexual assault investigation from an incident with the Chicago Blackhawks.
It was determined that Quenneville, along with GM Stan Bowman and VP of hockey operations Al MacIsaac, had an inadequate response to allegations that the team’s video coach, Brad Aldrich, sexually assaulted left winger Kyle Beach during the team’s 2010 Stanley Cup run.
As of July 10, 2024, all three of them were reinstated and were allowed to pursue NHL positions again.
“Over the last two weeks, we conducted interviews with many outstanding coaching candidates, while simultaneously conducting a comprehensive review of what took place while Joel was head coach of the Blackhawks in 2010,” Ducks GM Pat Verbeek said in a news release Thursday. “We spoke with dozens of individuals, including advocates for positive change in hockey and leadership of the NHL, which last July officially cleared Joel to seek employment in the league.”
In July 2021, Quenneville initially said in a statement he was not aware of the allegations at the time. The report released by law firm Jenner & Block in October 2021 reported that Quenneville did learn of the allegations during the 2010 playoff run but said they could not deal with the allegations at the moment.
“Our findings are consistent with Joel’s account that he was not fully aware of the severity of what transpired in 2010,” Verbeek said. “It is clear that Joel deeply regrets not following up with more questions at the time, has demonstrated meaningful personal growth and accountability and has earned the opportunity to return to coaching.”
The Ducks made big steps this season, finishing with a 35-37-10 record for 80 points. That’s a 21-point improvement from the 2023-24 campaign, when they had a 27-50-5 record for 59 points to finish seventh in the Pacific Division.
Anaheim is the fifth-youngest team in the NHL with an average age of 26.65, according to eliteprospects.com. Verbeek said hiring Quenneville could be the next step in helping the team grow into a playoff contender.
“Joel is a proven winner and one of the top coaches in NHL history,” Verbeek said. “We believe this is a major step forward in our process of being a perennial playoff contender.”
Dreger reported that Quenneville was the first candidate that Anaheim pursued. Kaplan added that Jay Woodcroft and Rick Tocchet were among the final candidates to be the Ducks’ coach.
Kaplan also mentioned David Carle had a two-day interview before he committed to the University of Denver, signing a multi-year extension with the NCAA program.
Quenneville has been a coach in the NHL for more than two decades, dating back to his first bench boss role in the 1997-98 season with the St. Louis Blues. He went on to coach the Colorado Avalanche, the Blackhawks and the Panthers.
With Chicago, he won three Stanley Cups in 2010, 2013, and 2015. He won the Jack Adams Award in the 1999-2000 season with St. Louis, as well as in 2012-13 with Chicago and 2020-21 with Florida.
The 66-year-old is the second-winningest coach in NHL history, with a 969-572-150 record, along with 77 ties. He is 276 wins from overtaking Scotty Bowman, who has 1,244 victories in the NHL.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice is just below Quenneville with 916 wins in 1,930 regular-season games behind the bench.
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