Florida Panthers
Joel Quenneville, Former Panthers Coach, Returns to Sunrise. What’s His Legacy Here?
Four years ago today, Joel Quenneville coached what would end up being his final game with the Florida Panthers.
On Oct. 27, 2021, Quenneville was behind the bench as the Panthers beat the Bruins 4-1 in Sunrise for a 7-0 start to their season.
The next day, Quenneville was in New York with team management including Bill Zito and Matt Caldwell meeting with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Quenneville resigned as coach of the Panthers in the wake of results from the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault investigation and subsequent interview from Kyle Beach that aired on TSN just before that game against the Bruins.
On Tuesday, Quenneville will be back behind the bench in Sunrise for the first time since that Bruins game — and he will be coaching the Anaheim Ducks.
Quenneville had been in exile since that forced resignation — “he decided it was best to resign … a decision with which I agreed,’’ Bettman said — until being reinstated by Bettman in 2024. He was hired to coach the Ducks last summer.
Many Florida fans felt that the Panthers were punished for crimes committed by the Blackhawks when their Hall of Fame coach, one who led Chicago to the Stanley Cup championship three times, was forced out.
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In the days after the independent investigation by law firm Jenner & Block into the Blackhawks was released, Chicago team president and general manager Stan Bowman resigned and director of hockey administration Al MacIsaac was let go.
Winnipeg GM Kevin Cheveldayoff, Chicago’s assistant GM at the time of the sexual assault, was cleared by the commissioner.
Bowman was hired as GM of the Edmonton Oilers in 2024 after being reinstated.
It has been a long time since Quenneville coached the Panthers — and much has happened in the years since.
The question is, what is Quenneville’s legacy in South Florida?
As with anything else, it is complicated.
Certainly, the way things ended between Quenneville and the Panthers skews how his three seasons here are looked at.
But there is little doubt his hiring by the team in 2019 marked a turning point in franchise history.
Having Joel Quenneville around was really good for the Panthers.
“It has been fun to be coached by him, and it is fun coming to the rink every day,’’ said Florida forward Frank Vatrano early in the 2019-20 season. Vatrano now plays for Quenneville in Anaheim, as does Radko Gudas.
“You know you’re going to work hard every single day. Every game and every meeting, we’re prepared. You cannot be halfway here. You have to be all-in and committed to the way he wants to play, to doing the right things and taking care of yourself off the ice. There’s accountability here and we need that.’’\
The Panthers fired Bob Boughner as coach the day after they finished the 2018-19 season 14 points out of a playoff spot.
Quenneville had been fired by Bowman earlier that season, and rumors that Dale Tallon and Vinnie Viola were working to bring him to the Panthers were constant as that season wore to a close.
Tallon brought Quenneville to Chicago, and had an agreement to hire him in Florida even before the Boughner firing was official.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Tallon said. “Q is a Hall of Fame coach, and he was available. This is a move we felt was necessary. This franchise needed this. We want to be relevant. We want to win. We want to win now. We’re tired of, in April, having exit meetings.”
The hiring of Quenneville by the Panthers was big news both locally and throughout the sports world.
His arrival in South Florida was a huge media event, the Panthers making a commercial out of Quenneville arriving in Fort Lauderdale on a private jet. A large number of players attended his introductory press conference at the arena.
#FlaPanthers Ready for 'New Beginning' Under Stanley Cup-winning Quenneville
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— Florida Panthers (@FlaPanthers) April 8, 2019
The Panthers were known as a team that had a carousel of coaches, and with Quenneville, those days were supposedly over.
So, too, were the days of the Panthers being regarded as a miserly organization.
Quenneville signed a five-year deal with the Panthers worth an estimated $6 million per season, making him the second-highest paid coach in the NHL.
It was, by far, the most the franchise ever spent on a coach.
“I’m excited about having the privilege of coaching some of these guys,’’ Quenneville said upon being hired. “I look back to when we were in Chicago when I first arrived and had the privilege of coaching that group that Dale had put in place.
“Lot of parallels from that 2010 team and this team. Missing the playoffs and the next year we found a way to get in the playoffs. And I think the young group here finds a way to get in the playoffs — tough division, tough challenge — but things happen.”
Not long later, the Panthers went on a spending spree in free agency, landing Sergei Bobrovsky, as well as Brett Connolly, Anton Stralman, and Noel Acciari after Artemi Panarin spurned their offer to join Bobrovsky in South Florida.
The Panthers were improved in Quenneville’s first season, but a rut coming out of the All-Star break led to the deadline trade of Vincent Trocheck. When Covid shut down the season in March, the Panthers were three points out of the playoffs.
Florida was part of the expanded postseason when hockey resumed, only they lost in 4 to the Islanders in the play-in round and Tallon was let go.
Zito was excited to work with Quenneville, and in their first year together, Florida finished second in the NHL’s reworked Central Division before losing in 6 to the Lightning in the first round.
The Panthers ended up winning the Presidents’ Trophy during the 2021-22 season — only it was former Quenneville assistant Andrew Brunette coaching those final 75 games.
Quenneville, after his firing in Chicago, said when he returned to coaching, it would only be with a Stanley Cup contender.
When he signed on with the Florida Panthers, it opened some eyes.
When Quenneville was asked where he wanted to coach next, he said he would only go to a Stanley Cup contender.
And then he signed on with the Florida Panthers.
“I meant that,” Quenneville said, “and I believe it.”
Turns out, he may have been onto something.
The Panthers, of course, have been to the Stanley Cup Final the past three years and have won it the past two.
Stanley Cup banners Quenneville hoped to bring here will hang behind him on the Anaheim bench on Tuesday night.
The Panthers did not have anything to do with what happened in Chicago, but were better off for having Quenneville when they did.
He helped transform the franchise — or at least raised the expectations of it.
ON DECK: GAME No. 11
ANAHEIM DUCKS @ FLORIDA PANTHERS
- When: Tuesday, 7 p.m.
- Where: Amerant Bank Arena, Sunrise
- Local TV: Scripps Sports — WSFL 39 (Miami/FTL); WHDT 9 (WPB); LAFF 36.3 (Naples/FTM)
- Streaming: Panthers+, ESPN
- Radio: WQAM; WBZT 1230-AM (Palm Beach); WCTH 100.3-FM (Florida Keys); SiriusXM
- Panthers Radio Streaming: SiriusXM 932, NHL App
- This Season (Panthers Lead 1-0) — At Anaheim: Nov. 4. At Florida: Tuesday.
- Last Season: Panthers won 2-0
- All-time Regular Season Series: Florida leads 23-15-2, 3 ties
- Up Next for the Panthers: Saturday vs. Dallas Stars, 6
A thoughtful, honest piece. Thank you, George.
Remember the day Q was hired well. It felt like the day the Florida Panthers got serious about winning.
That the franchise continued to prosper after his resignation is a credit to the entire organization. The decisions not to retain Brunette and overhaul a Presidents’ Trophy winning roster took a lot of guts.
Fortunately it paid off for everyone.
Go Cats.
Q’s legacy in Florida is clear to us. His benching of Huberdeau
For lazy shifts and not coming back on defense was telling. It’s alsmost a sure thing that Q’s opinion was factored in on Zito’s thinking as he planned what the Panthers would look like in the next few years.