Joel Quenneville on Thursday resigned as coach of the Florida Panthers, two days after the coach with the second-highest number of wins in NHL history was among those implicated for not swiftly responding to allegations by a Chicago Blackhawks player of being sexually assaulted by another coach during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs.
The announcement was made shortly after Quenneville met with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in New York to discuss his role in the Blackhawks’ response to claims from Kyle Beach that he was sexually assaulted by then-Blackhawks assistant coach Brad Aldrich.
“I admire Kyle Beach for his courage in coming forward, am appalled that he was so poorly supported upon making his initial claim and in the 11 years since, and am sorry for all he has endured,” Bettman said.
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Andrew Brunette — an assistant coach under Quenneville in Florida — was hired as the team’s interim coach, and is expected to make his debut when the unbeaten Panthers were yesterday to play the Detroit Redwings. Brunette has never been a head coach.
Quenneville resigned with about three years and US$15 million remaining on his contract with the Panthers.
In a statement released to TSN, Quenneville said he resigned “with deep regret and contrition.”
“I want to express my sorrow for the pain this young man, Kyle Beach, has suffered. My former team, the Blackhawks, failed Kyle and I own my share of that,” Quenneville said.
Bettman said that if the 63-year-old Quenneville ever wants to return to the NHL, the league would need to meet with him first and approve his hiring.
The fallout is likely not over. Bettman was yesterday to meet with Winnipeg Jets general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who also worked for the Blackhawks when Beach made his allegations.
An investigation released on Tuesday said Quenneville — who coached Chicago at that time — and others in the Blackhawks organization did not prioritize addressing Beach’s allegations, presumably because they did not want to take away from the team’s push toward a championship.
Quenneville has said he was unaware of the allegations until this summer, a stance he reiterated on Wednesday morning.
Beach, in an interview that aired on Wednesday evening on TSN, said there was “absolutely no way” the then-Blackhawks coach could deny knowing about the allegations.
The Panthers allowed Quenneville to coach on Wednesday night in a game that started about an hour after Beach’s interview aired. At that point, the team’s investigation into what to do and how to proceed was already underway.
At 7-0-0, the Panthers are off to their best start in the franchise’s 28-year history, looking much like the Stanley Cup contenders that Quenneville was hired in 2019 to build. If they get there, it would be without him.
Players on Wednesday insisted their focus was solely on the ice; some of the team’s leaders, such as captain Aleksander Barkov and defenseman Aaron Ekblad, even said they did not know much about the investigation or the massive fallout.
“It stands in direct contrast to our values as an organization and what the Florida Panthers stand for,” Caldwell said. “No one should ever have to endure what Kyle Beach experienced during, and long after, his time in Chicago.”
Quenneville’s 969 victories trail only the 1,244 amassed by Scotty Bowman — the father of now-former Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman, who resigned on Tuesday when the investigation’s findings were released.
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