Joel Quenneville has been hired as head coach of the Anaheim Ducks, the team confirmed on Thursday. Quenneville, a three-time Stanley Cup champion as a head coach, has been out of the NHL since 2021, when the league determined Quenneville had an “inadequate response” to allegations of sexual assault within the Chicago Blackhawks when he was coach of the team.
The Ducks will introduce Quenneville on Thursday at a 1 p.m. PT news conference. In a statement, Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said: “Today is a great day for the Anaheim Ducks. Joel is a proven winner and one of the top coaches in NHL history. We believe this is a major step forward in our process of being a perennial playoff contender.
“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. 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. Our findings are consistent with Joel’s account that he was not fully aware of the severity of what transpired in 2010. 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.”
Quenneville, 66, ranks second all-time among NHL coaches with 969 regular-season victories. He most recently coached the Florida Panthers from 2019-21 but resigned after a meeting with commissioner Gary Bettman regarding his role in the Blackhawks scandal, in which former player Kyle Beach alleged he had been sexually assaulted by Chicago video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010. A report from a law firm later detailed how the Chicago organization failed to properly address the allegations.
Bettman subsequently announced that Quenneville, then Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman and then-Chicago executive Al MacIsaac — all of whom left their roles in 2021 — would have to meet with him before returning to the NHL. All three were reinstated last July 1, and Bowman was hired as GM of the Edmonton Oilers that month but Quenneville has remained on the sidelines.
In a statement released by the Ducks, Quenneville said: “I’m excited to join the Anaheim Ducks. This is the organization I wanted to restart my career with and am truly grateful for this opportunity. 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.”
In an email exchange with The Athletic on Thursday, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said of Quenneville: “Upon full reinstatement, we considered (and continue to consider) the matter to be closed.” Per league sources, the Ducks conducted “an extensive review over the past two weeks of the Kyle Beach case” and will address their findings at the news conference on Thursday.
In 2023, a second player — identified only as “John Doe” — filed a lawsuit against the Blackhawks, saying the team failed to act during the 2010 playoffs when informed of sexual assault allegations against Aldrich.
In a statement, attorneys from Romanucci & Blandin, the firm representing that second player, said:
“We are deeply troubled to hear about the hiring of Coach Q by another NHL team this week, despite his complicity in the Blackhawks’ clubhouse regarding sexual abuse of a player and now active litigation about sexual abuse of another player by a staff member. The leadership expected of a Head Coach and the decency expected as a human being should have guided him to protect these players at all costs. We hope and expect his new team will hold him and the entire management team to the highest standards of conduct and not sacrifice player well-being for winning.”
The Ducks were in search of a replacement for Greg Cronin, whom they fired this month after two seasons. The Ducks made a 21-point improvement in the standings this season but missed the playoffs for a seventh consecutive year.
Quenneville brings a long record of coaching success, which came after a 13-year career as an NHL defenseman.
After he won the Stanley Cup as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche in 1996, Quenneville became head coach in St. Louis and led the Blues to the playoffs in seven of his eight seasons. After being fired in 2004, Quenneville returned to Colorado as head coach for three seasons.
Quenneville’s biggest success came in Chicago. Hired in 2008, he coached the Blackhawks to a Stanley Cup championship in his second season, then again in 2013 and 2015. After the Blackhawks lost in the first round of the playoffs in 2016 and 2017, and missed the playoffs in 2017-18, Quenneville was fired 15 games into the 2018-19 season. He then moved to the Florida Panthers, with whom he spent parts of three seasons before his 2021 resignation.
(Photo: Jasen Vinlove / Imagn Images)