CHICAGO \u2014 Joel Quenneville, returning to Chicago for the first time since his ouster from the NHL in 2021 and his reinstatement this summer, said he should have been \u201cmore forceful\u201d when allegations of sexual assault by assistant video coach Brad Aldrich were brought to the attention of Chicago Blackhawks management in May 2010.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could have been more forceful and asked more questions and gotten more involved in the details of what happened,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quenneville won the Stanley Cup three times as Blackhawks coach, in 2010, 2013 and 2015. But the 2010 championship has been tainted by the Aldrich revelations, brought to light by a lawsuit from two former Black Aces, including a high-profile case involving Kyle Beach. Two players, including Beach, told team skills coach Paul Vincent that Aldrich had sexually assaulted them, and Vincent brought it to management\u2019s attention after the Blackhawks had defeated the San Jose Sharks in the 2010 Western Conference final.<\/p>\n
The meeting was attended by team executives John McDonough, Al MacIsaac and Jay Blunk, as well as general manager Stan Bowman, assistant general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff and Quenneville. Bowman told investigators from the Jenner & Block law firm that Quenneville was dismissive of the allegations, saying the team needed to focus on winning.<\/p>\n
McDonough, MacIsaac and Blunk are out of hockey. Quenneville resigned as Florida Panthers coach and Bowman resigned as GM of the Blackhawks after the Jenner & Block report was released in October 2021. Quenneville and Bowman were reinstated by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman in July 2024, and Bowman is now the GM of the Edmonton Oilers and Quenneville is in his first season coaching the Anaheim Ducks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Ducks visited the Blackhawks on Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Quenneville said he addressed the issue with his Ducks players right away, talking about \u201caccountability.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned through that,\u201d Quenneville said. \u201cApplying those lessons now, (there are) two takeaways. One, applying those lessons, making sure it doesn\u2019t happen under our watch. And making sure the players\u2019 health and safety is priority No. 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
Quenneville said he has been in touch with Beach over the past few years, and that their conversations have been \u201cpositive\u201d and \u201chealthy,\u201d but that he\u2019d keep the nature of them private.<\/p>\n
When Quenneville first returned to Chicago as Panthers coach, he was greeted with a tribute video and a lengthy standing ovation. There are no plans to recognize him at Sunday\u2019s game. <\/p>\n
Chicago is celebrating its centennial season, and Quenneville is a big part of the team\u2019s history. He was asked Sunday if he\u2019d like to be a part of the year-long festivities, and if his relationship with the team could be repaired.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019ve moved on and we\u2019re part of the game and the league,\u201d he said. \u201cThe Hawks, I haven\u2019t had a lot of shared discussions lately. But at the same time, we\u2019ve gotten along fine as we\u2019ve gone over the last year. The memories that we have over that stretch of time was spectacular, and I don\u2019t think you can take anything away from the guys who accomplished some great feats and some special moments. We shared so much great runs and moments together, and seeing those guys grow up as young hockey players and turn out to be special players over their careers. I think the times were so special, you\u2019ve got to be feeling that\u2019s got to be a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO \u2014 Joel Quenneville, returning to Chicago for the first time since his ouster from the NHL in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":226116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[1419,64,63,7520,575,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-226115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-anaheim-ducks","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-chicago-blackhawks","12":"tag-nhl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}