Ducks Make Tone-Deaf Decision With Joel Quenneville Hire

The Anaheim Ducks are rightfully under fire after their controversial head-coaching hire.

Jon Alfano | May 9, 2025

Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville looks on against the Minnesota Wild. / Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

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Anaheim Ducks

The Anaheim Ducks' hiring of head coach Joel Quenneville is controversial for a multitude of reasons.

From a strictly on-ice perspective, the hire is odd to say the least. Quenneville, 66, is very much an old-school, hard-nosed coach — much like Greg Cronin, whom Anaheim fired just last month. The Ducks have a host of young talent to build around, and after Cronin's underwhelming tenure, it's strange they'd go for a coach with a similar mindset.

That pales in comparison to why this hire is truly controversial, however.

Quenneville has been out of the NHL since 2021, when the league determined that he had an "inadequate response" to allegations of sexual assault within the Chicago Blackhawks organization as head coach in 2010. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Stan Bowman, the Blackhawks' general manager at the time of the incident, told investigators that Quenneville said it was “hard for the team to get to where they were, and they could not deal with this issue now."

Former Blackhawks forward Kyle Beach, who alleged he had been sexually assaulted by then-video coach Brad Aldrich, previously said that there was "absolutely no way" that Quenneville wasn't aware of the situation, as he previously claimed to be.

"I witnessed meetings right after I reported [the assault] to [then-Blackhawks mental skills coach] James Gary that were held in Joel Quenneville's office," Beach said, per The Athletic. "There's absolutely no way he can deny knowing it."

Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek said at Thursday's introductory press conference that the team did its due diligence surrounding the situation and felt comfortable hiring Quenneville, who they believe has changed for the better.

"Over the last two weeks, we conducted interviews with many outstanding coaching candidates, while simultaneously conducting a comprehensive review of what took place while Joel was head coach of the Blackhawks in 2010," Verbeek said. "We spoke with dozens of individuals, including advocates for positive change in hockey and leadership of the NHL, which last July officially cleared Joel to seek employment in the League."

"Our findings are consistent with Joel's account that he was not fully aware of the severity of what transpired in 2010. It is clear that Joel deeply regrets not following up with more questions at the time, has demonstrated meaningful personal growth and accountability, and has earned the opportunity to return to coaching."

Maybe Quenneville is a better person than he was when he resigned as head coach of the Florida Panthers in 2021, and especially when he was with the Blackhawks at the time of the incident. Honestly, that's what every hockey fan should hope for.

Even if that is the case, however, it doesn't change how tone-deaf this move is. These kinds of incidents are sadly far too common in the hockey world, and with five members of the 2018 Canada world junior team now on trial for an alleged sexual assault at the tournament, they are currently in the spotlight more than ever before.

For the Ducks to hire a coach who faced such backlash due to sexual assault allegation mismanagement, which would have been a bad look at any time, but especially now, is just demoralizing for everyone who wants to see the sport change for the better.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Quenneville's return to the NHL was all but inevitable. He, Bowman, and Al MacIsaac, the Blackhawks' assistant general manager at the time of the incident, were all reinstated by the NHL on July 1, 2024. Bowman was hired as the Edmonton Oilers' general manager later that same month, which, combined with Quenneville's hire, shows that teams are willing to overlook horrible actions if they think someone can help them win, whether or not those people are deserving of forgiveness.

However, just because that's the reality of the league and sports in general, it doesn't make it right.

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Published May 9, 2025

JON ALFANO

Jon is a lead writer for Baltimore Ravens On SI and contributes to other sites around the network as well. The Tampa native previously worked with sites such as ClutchPoints and GiveMeSport and earned his journalism degree at the University of Central Florida.