The NHL was full of plenty of news throughout the day Monday, but not all of it was free agency related. This afternoon, the league announced that former Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville and general manager Stan Bowman have been fully reinstated by the league, allowing them to pursue job opportunities.
The NHL’s statement:
“The National Hockey League today announced that, effective immediately, Stan Bowman, Al MacIsaac and Joel Quenneville are eligible to seek employment in the NHL. For more than the last two and a half years, these individuals have been ineligible to work for any NHL team as a result of their inadequate response upon being informed in 2010 of allegations that Blackhawks’ Player, Kyle Beach, had been assaulted by the Club’s video coach.
While it is clear that, at the time, their responses were unacceptable, each of these three individuals (Messrs. Bowman, MacIsaac and Quenneville) has acknowledged that and used his time away from the game to engage in activities which, not only demonstrate sincere remorse for what happened, but also evidence greater awareness of the responsibilities that all NHL personnel have, particularly personnel who are in positions of leadership. Moreover, each has made significant strides in personal improvement by participating in myriad programs, many of which focused on the imperative of responding in effective and meaningful ways to address alleged acts of abuse. The League expects that they will continue this commitment in any future capacity with the NHL and/or one of our Clubs.
While Clubs are free to discuss potential employment opportunities with Messrs. Bowman, MacIsaac and Quenneville effective immediately, they will not be permitted to enter into new employment relationships with any of these individuals until on or after Wednesday, July 10, 2024.”
Frank Seravalli at Daily Faceoff already reported that Bowman may have a gig lined up:
It’s also likely that Quenneville gets back into the game fairly quickly. After all, he’s the second winningest coach in NHL history with 969 career wins and a winning percentage of .548. Given the state of the role, where coaches are moved around so much that even Luke Richardson is one of the longer-tenured bench bosses in the league, Quenneville may be able to step into a head coaching role right away.
Whether the two deserve to be reinstated or not, the opinion of the league is that both men have learned and grown from their mistakes. It clearly won’t be long before both of them are working in the NHL once more.
