The Columbus Blue Jackets remain the only team without a head coach for the 2024-25 NHL season as Don Waddell fired previous bench boss Pascal Vincent on June 17th. Since being reinstated by the league on July 1st, multiple reports have linked Joel Quenneville with the head coaching vacancy in Columbus. However, it appears Quenneville will have to wait for a new NHL home as Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports the Blue Jackets have no interest in Quenneville.
Quenneville unceremoniously resigned from his previous position as head coach of the Florida Panthers during the 2021-22 season after league investigations unearthed his involvement in the Kyle Beach sexual assault allegations against then-video coach Brad Aldrich during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs. According to reporting, Quenneville diminished the matter at hand due to eliminating ’distractions’ during the Chicago Blackhawks’ quest for the Stanley Cup.
Upon his resignation, Quenneville said, “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. I want to reflect on how all this happened and take the time to educate myself on ensuring hockey spaces are safe for everyone“. After nearly three years away from the game, league commissioner Gary Bettman decided that Quenneville and others were eligible for reinstatement due to, “each of these three individuals has acknowledged that and used his time away from the game to engage in activities which, not only demonstrate sincere remorse for what happened, but also evidence greater awareness of the responsibilities that all NHL personnel have, particularly personnel who are in positions of leadership“.
Outside of the obvious controversy from the 2010 playoffs, Quenneville sits just behind legendary coach Scotty Bowman for the most wins in NHL history behind the bench. The veteran head coach has spent 25 years in the NHL between the St. Louis Blues (eight years), Colorado Avalanche (three years), Chicago Blackhawks (11 years), and Florida Panthers (three years). Over that stretch, Quenneville has compiled a record of 969-572-77-150 over 1,768 games and has made the playoffs 20 times with three Stanley Cup rings.
This takes one name off the list for Columbus as the team looks to rebound from a disastrous season in 2023-24. The Blue Jackets have not made the postseason since the 2019-20 season and have finished last place in the Metropolitan Division three out of the past four years. The next head coach for the franchise will be important as Columbus has legitimate talent on the roster such as Johnny Gaudreau and a wealth of prospects on the way.
I thought they hired McLellan already
They’re going through the motions apparently. They need to just pull the trigger.
So they can sign free agents and other coaching staff.
I’d imagine after the Babcock fiasco that Columbus probably wants a low key hiring this time around.
Too bad the Chicago franchise wasn’t equally held responsible by the NHL…
The franchise itself wasn’t responsible. Its employees were.
The Ottawa franchise wasn’t responsible for trading Vegas a player who was on his No-trade list, it was Dorion. Funny that, Senators were slapped with some heavy penalties including loss of a first round pick. Bettman’s double-standards, or is breaking a contract worse than physically assaulting someone in his eyes?
The NHL, where it’s worse to workout prospects like Arizona or mishandle paperwork like Ottawa than it is to coverup a sexual assault scandal.
@layventsky
And it’s the owner/s of the franchise are responsible for there employees, so there’s enough fault to go around
It’s McLellan. I talked to someone who writes for the Athletic before Vincent was fired and he told me that Waddell had already told McLellan the job was his if he wanted it, he just had to wait to fire Vincent as it wouldn’t be professional to gas him 10 minutes onto the job. Now it’s just about rolling thru the motions and making it look like a search and process was conducted. McLellan is likely already pulling some strings unofficially. McLellan was upset he didn’t get more consideration for the Maple Leafs job.
All of out Columbus news writers have been saying it was McLellan since day one.
Buffalo has an opening for HC since they NEVER conducted a HC search this offseason