13 hours Ago
ANAHEIM — From a purely hockey standpoint, the Ducks’ hiring of Joel Quenneville to be the 12th head coach in the team’s history is a no-brainer.Anaheim has a roster of young talent ready to take the next step, and Quenneville has a proven ability to take such a collection of talent to greatness. He’s done it with the Chicago Blackhawks and the Florida Panthers, and he has three Stanley Cup rings as a head coach (and a fourth as an assistant in Colorado) to show for it.
But ...
There is a reason Quenneville has been out of hockey for nearly four seasons. The findings that the Blackhawks mishandled allegations by former player Kyle Beach that video coach Brad Aldrich had sexually assaulted him in 2010 eventually enveloped the coach, who has acknowledged that he didn’t do enough in addressing the situation, as well as general manager Stan Bowman and assistant GM Al MacIssac.The league banned Quenneville, Bowman and MacIssac in 2021, in addition to fining the organization $2 million for what it termed “inadequate internal procedures and insufficient and untimely response,” and lifted the bans last summer.
Bowman became the Edmonton Oilers’ general manager in July, and 10 months later Ducks GM Pat Verbeek hired Quenneville, a former NHL teammate.Not surprisingly, more than half of Thursday’s introductory press conference concerned the history. Verbeek addressed it at length in his opening statement, and Quenneville was penitent and up front about the incident and what he failed to do, and he seemed determined to use what he’d learned and work with groups within the community that deal with sexual assault and help survivors.
“Joel acknowledged that his response in 2010 was inadequate,” Verbeek said in his opening statement. “He recognizes that failing to ask further questions and that not following up and taking action were serious mistakes. Nearly four years away from the game, he has demonstrated sincere remorse and has bettered himself by participating in a number of programs focused on education, personal growth and improving his understanding of abuse prevention and response.
“Joel has paid a price and has faced the consequences. And after careful deliberation and consultation with so many, we believe he he’s taking the necessary steps to return to the game as the head coach of the Anaheim Ducks.”Said Quenneville: “As Pat said, what happened to Kyle Beach was horrific and inexcusable.
I was sick to my stomach when I learned what had taken place, Had I known what had happened, I would have taken swift action. I own my mistakes. While I believe wholeheartedly the issue was handled by management, I take full responsibility for not following up and asking more questions.
That’s entirely on me.“Over nearly four years, I’ve taken time to reflect, to listen to experts and advocates and educate myself on the realities of abuse, trauma and how to be a better leader. I hope others can learn from my inaction.
I’ve spoken to Kyle more than once, including this morning. I’ve apologized to him and express how much I regret not following up and taking action. .
.. I fully understand and accept that those who question my return to the league.
I know words aren’t enough.”Credit the Ducks for addressing the story up front rather than trying to hide from it. There will almost certainly be blowback – there almost always is – but also consider that Henry and Susan Samueli, whose ownership of the Ducks is probably more family- and community-oriented than any in this region, vetted this hiring and did so after their own conversations with Quenneville.
“We spent hours literally going through all the details of (Verbeek’s) due diligence and who he spoke to and what they had to say,” said Henry Samueli, whose own conversations included one with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, as well as a sitdown with Quenneville himself. “I mean, you have good people who make mistakes. You have bad people who make mistakes.
So you want to make sure that you’re dealing with a good person who just happened to make a mistake. And I am absolutely convinced Joel is a really good person.”The owners’ conversation with Quenneville went a long way toward them getting them comfortable with hiring him.
“Big difference,” Samueli said.At some point, let’s hope, the story will be about hockey, and about a veteran coach’s ability to turn a youthful team into a true threat. Quenneville replaced Denis Savard as Blackhawks coach five games into the 2008-09 season, and a team that had missed the playoffs five consecutive seasons – though increasing its point total from 59 to 88 the last four – reached the conference finals in 2009, then won three Stanley Cups the next six years (and took the Kings to overtime in Game 7 of the 2014 conference finals).
Similarly, Quenneville took over the Florida Panthers in 2019-20, a team that had made the playoffs once in the previous seven years. He didn’t stay around long enough to get them to the Cup, for reasons outlined above, but the Panthers are the current defending champs, and Quenneville helped plant some of those seeds.“One of the best coaches I ever had,” said Frank Vatrano, who played two seasons and the first part of a third for Quenneville in Florida.
“His aura when he’s in the room, and just the energy. ..
. On a day-to-day basis, he makes it really fun to come to the rink every day. You can be having a tough stretch as a team or individual going through individual struggles, and he knows how to lift you up and lift the team up at the right times.
”These Ducks intrigued Quenneville the first time he saw them live, in a 4-3 shootout loss at Tampa Bay in January.“I was thoroughly impressed at the pace of the game and the skill and the speed that Anaheim had,” Quenneville said. “I was surprised and I was impressed.
And everywhere I go in hockey lately everybody says, ‘You know, the place to go (is) Anaheim. They’ve got what you had in Chicago.’ And I’m sitting there (thinking), I know I was the most fortunate coach walking in that day in Chicago, but I certainly feel that this team is on the right track of being there.
”Here’s another hint that things are about to get interesting in Honda Center. Verbeek said Thursday that the goal is now to get to the playoffs, period. Samueli stated that “it’s time to take this step to becoming a perennial playoff contender and eventually Stanley Cup contender.
” Then he added that he told Verbeek this, after spending a hefty sum on Quenneville’s contract:“When going out and looking for players, you will have the budget. You need to make this a serious playoff team and you don’t have to pinch pennies anymore. Just do what it takes to make this a good team.
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