Joel Quenneville Not Eligible for Coaching Vacancies Following Suspension

BOSTON — Joel Quenneville will not become the next head coach of the Blues in the wake of Craig Berube’s dismissal by St. Louis, just as the three-time Stanley Cup winning coach did not replace Jay Woodcroft in Edmonton or Dean Evason in Minnesota when they were let go from their respective jobs weeks ago.

Quenneville’s Suspension

Slap Shots has been told by a high-ranking NHL official that Quenneville has not been reinstated by Gary Bettman from the indefinite, albeit unofficial, suspension he has been serving since Oct. 28, 2021, for his failure to act responsibly in connection with the Kyle Beach sexual assault scandal and cover-up that took place under the coach’s watch in Chicago.

Thus, the 65-year-old Quenneville is not eligible for consideration to fill coaching vacancies until further notice, likely until at least next offseason. But his reinstatement at that point is not guaranteed. Neither is parole at any date.

Possible Reasons for Quenneville’s Non-Reinstatement

It appeared as if Quenneville was gaining traction last summer when he met with the commissioner, but there is a sense that matters shifted. Perhaps there was some backlash when Quenneville was invited to address league coaches last September to discuss what he had learned from the scandal. Perhaps Quenneville suffered some collateral damage in the wake of Mike Babcock’s disastrous re-entry into the league in Columbus. Or perhaps Bettman believes reinstating Quenneville after just two-plus seasons out of the league is simply not appropriate. Perhaps this is not only a consideration of optics.

Hiring Quenneville Will Be a Tough Sell

Hiring Quenneville is going to be a tough sell, not only from a PR standpoint in any specific team’s market, but likely to players, as well. The NHL is increasingly dominated by a new generation that all but certainly would not look away or stand for things that might have been accepted in 2010.

It is no sure thing that Quenneville, whose 969 career victories are second in NHL history to Scotty Bowman’s 1,244, will stand behind an NHL bench again.

St. Louis Blues’ Recent Performance

St. Louis GM Doug Armstrong runs one of the more stable ships in the league. He kept as much of the 2019 Cup core together as possible — and did well in renting out both Vlad Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly last year — but did not make out well a while ago in exchanging defensemen Alex Pietrangelo and Jay Bouwmeester for Justin Faulk and Torey Krug, did he?

Pietrangelo absconded to Vegas as a free agent in the summer of 2020 for seven years at $8.8 million per, months after Bouwmeester experienced a cardiac episode on his team’s bench during a game in Anaheim on Feb. 11 that marked his final contest.

The Blues signed both Faulk and Krug to matching seven-year free agent contracts worth $6.5 million per for seven years.

Jordan Binnington’s immaturity did not serve the team well, either, when it could have used some stability in net — rather than flexing — the past couple of seasons.

Eastern Conference Playoff Race

So, if the Flyers, Islanders, Canes and Red Wings are in — as they were in the Eastern Conference race Saturday morning — then who is out? New Jersey, Tampa Bay and Buffalo?

And if the Devils and Lightning are in, then who is out? The Islanders, Flyers or Red Wings?

The Flyers, they’re probably in the 2009-10, 2010-11 stage of the Rangers’ evolution under John Tortorella, aren’t they?

Seems that Tortorella should be holding a pretty commanding lead for the Coach of the Year award voted by the broadcasting community of which he was a part of between gigs behind the bench.

Conflict of interest!

Honor system.

Notable Statistics

Raise your hand if you knew that Michael Carcone, a 27-year-old undrafted forward with Arizona who had scored six goals in 30 NHL games prior to this season, leads the league in five-on-five goals with 12 — one more than a group including Artemi Panarin, Nathan MacKinnon and Sid Crosby?

Or that Josh Anderson of Montreal has not scored a goal in 369:34 of five-on-five play?

Hand down, Marty St. Louis.

Finally, hey, look over there, no, over there — the Islanders just lost another two-goal lead.