One of the biggest moves of the Anaheim Ducks' 2025 offseason, perhaps the biggest move, was the hiring of Joel Quenneville as the 12th head coach in franchise history.
Quenneville (66) has a sparkling resume as the second-winningest coach in NHL history and has his name engraved on the Stanley Cup three times as the head coach of the 2010, 2013, and 2015 Chicago Blackhawks.
Poll: What are Your Career Expectations for Lukas Dostal?
Poll: Which Anaheim Ducks Offseason Acquisition are You Most Anticipating?
Poll: Was Beckett Sennecke a Good Pick at Third Overall in 2024?
He hasn’t coached an NHL game since he resigned from his job as head coach of the Florida Panthers on Oct. 28, 2021, following a meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman regarding his involvement in the 2010 Blackhawks' sexual abuse case.
The NHL reinstated Quenneville, along with Stan Bowman and Al McIsaac, on July 1, 2024. He was hired by Ducks general manager Pat Verbeek on May 8, 2025, after parting ways with Greg Cronin on April 19.
As expected, the hiring faced and will likely continue to face pushback from those in the community who support the Ducks, as well as from fans around the league.
Initial criticism has seemingly dulled with time, and especially after Quenneville’s introductory press conference, where, paired with Verbeek and ownership’s (Henry Samueli) insistence upon having done due diligence, Quenneville arrived with a lengthy list of names to whom he had reached out and been educated by over the last four years regarding his missteps from 15 years ago and his continued journey of growth.
Quenneville has precedented success in his last two stops with teams in similar situations to the 2025-26 Anaheim Ducks, looking to turn the corner on their rebuild and open their playoff contention window. He took over as the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks early in the 2008-09 season, a season in which they ended their five-season playoff drought and reached the Western Conference final. The next season (2009-10), they won their first of three Stanley Cups in six years, forming the only modern-day NHL dynasty.
He was hired as the head coach of the Florida Panthers ahead of the 2019-20 season and built the foundation of today’s iteration of the organization that has been to three consecutive Stanley Cup finals and won two.
On paper, the hiring is more than logical, but Quenneville’s past has the potential to become a distraction if not properly addressed.
The other factor to…