Commissioner Gary Bettman to meet with Joel Quenneville to review his status

Quenneville was an NHL coach every season from 1995-2022. During his time as a head coach with from 1996-97 with the St. Louis Blues onward, he racked up 969 wins, the second most in NHL history, including three Stanley Cups with the Chicago Blackhawks. Most recently, he was coach of the Florida Panthers.

In 2021, former Blackhawks player Kyle Beach came forward with allegations that he was sexually assaulted by video coach Brad Aldrich in 2010, when Quenneville was head coach. Beach said it would be impossible for Quenneville to not know what was happening at the time.

In the wake of the revelations of the team’s cover-up of the assault, Quenneville resigned from behind the bench in Florida in fall 2021, in an unprecedented move after the team won the first seven games of the season up to that point. After the story of Aldrich’s assault on Beach broke and Quenneville stepped away, it seemed that was the end of his NHL coaching career after nearly 30 years behind the bench.

Last May, Bettman said that he had not had any conversations with Quenneville up to that point. 

“There’s nothing currently happening with Joel,” Bettman said. “And if and when there’s a real conversation to be had, then I’ll focus on it at the time. I assume it’d be initiated by Joel, if and when he thinks it’s the appropriate time and he feels that he’s ready to come back and there’s an opportunity. But again, I’ll have to make an evaluation at that time.”

Stan Bowman was the general manager of the Blackhawks during the incident and resigned from his job in October 2021 in the wake of the controversy. Bowman needs NHL approval to get back to working for an NHL team. The failure of the Blackhawks organization to address the abuse at the time it happened was a dark moment for them and everyone else around the league.