Breaking: Florida Panthers hiring Paul Maurice as new coach

The Florida Panthers have found a permanant replacement for Joel Quenneville as the team is hiring former Winnipeg Jets coach Paul Maurice.

An announcement from the team could come as early as Wednesday afternoon with a press conference in South Florida on Thursday — although nothing is official so things could be pushed back a day.

The news Maurice would take over the Panthers was first reported by Elliotte Friedman.

Maurice, 55, has also been the head coach in Toronto and Carolina/Hartford.

His 2002 Carolina team won the Eastern Conference championship where the Hurricanes lost to Detroit.

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A close friend of former Panthers coach Pete DeBoer, Maurice resigned as coach of the Jets midway through last season.

He will become the 18th coach in the history of the organization.

Florida lost Quenneville when he was forced to resign when more details on the Kyle Beach sexual assault scandle broke; Andrew Brunette replaced Quenneville as coach on an interim basis and ended up finishing second in Jack Adams voting.

Brunette has one more year left on his assistant coaching contract and could return behind the Florida bench next season with Maurice.

The Panthers are believed to be giving Brunette the opportunity to return if he so chooses. Brunette has also been free to speak with other teams regarding their coaching vacancies.

Florida currently has one assistant coach committed for next season with Tuomo Ruutu returning; the contracts of Derek MacKenzie and Ulf Samuelsson were not renewed.

Goalie coach Robb Tallas, who first joined the staff when DeBoer was coach, is expected to return to work with Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight.

This story is developing and will be updated throughout the day. 

Florida Panthers coaching history

Roger Neilson 1993-95

Doug MacLean 1995-97

Bryan Murray 1997-98*

Terry Murray 1998-2000

Duane Sutter 2000-01*

Mike Keenan 2001-03

Rick Dudley 2003-04*

John Torchetti 2004*

Jacques Martin 2004-08

Pete DeBoer 2008-11

Kevin Dineen 2011-13

Peter Horachek 2013-14*

Gerard Gallant 2014-16

Tom Rowe 2016-17*

Bob Boughner 2017-19

Joel Quenneville 2019-21

Andrew Brunette 2021-22*

Paul Maurice 2022-present

(*) — Indicates midseason replacement