Former Blackhawks Coach Quenneville To Meet Commissioner Thursday

Chicago IL

27 October, 2021

2:11 PM

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CHICAGO — Joel Quenneville, the former Chicago Blackhawks coach who guided the team to three Stanley Cup championships between 2010 and 2015, is scheduled to meet with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman on Thursday to discuss his role in the organization's handling of sexual assault allegations by a member of the 2010 Stanley Cup championship team. Quenneville, now in his third season as the coach of the Florida Panthers, told reporters Wednesday that he believed the meeting with Bettman would take place at NHL headquarters in New York. Quenneville was among those who met to discuss allegations of abuse by the Blackhawks' then video coach Brad Aldrich in May 2010, investigators of the matter said in a 107-page report released to the public Tuesday. Quenneville said in a statement issued by the Panthers earlier this year that he only learned of the abuse when "John Doe," who was one of nine Rockford Ice Hogs players called up to serve as "Black Aces" with the Hawks for the playoffs, filed a lawsuit against the team this year. However, investigators said Tuesday that Quenneville was among Hawks brass who chose to do nothing about the allegations until after the 2010 playoffs had concluded. On Wednesday, "John Doe" was identified as former Hawks first-round draft pick Kyle Beach, who now plays in a European hockey league in Germany. In an exclusive interview with Canadian network TSN, Beach called Tuesday's day of reckoning for the Blackhawks "a day of many emotions." "I cried, I smiled, I laughed, I cried some more and my girlfriend and I – we didn't know how to feel. We didn't know how to think, we just held each other and supported each other," Beach told TSN in an emotional interview. "She's been my rock from the very beginning of this process and I'm very fortunate to have her here and to be able to lean on her, rely on her to help on those tough days — I don't think that I or we could have imagined what would have come out of yesterday's press conference. "And following it, just a great feeling of relief and vindication, and it was no longer my word against everybody else's. Because a lot of things were made public, a lot of people were interviewed, and I really felt like there was a lot of lies told in the media. And it was very special and important to me to have that truth come out yesterday." Blackhawks CEO Danny Wirtz said Tuesday that Quenneville, along with now former general manager Stan Bowman and former team President John McDonough and other executives, put winning a Stanley Cup ahead of protecting the safety of a player. The report stated that Quenneville was "upset" about how the matter of investigating the incident would affect team chemistry as the Hawks prepared for the Stanley Cup Final. Quenneville said in a team statement in July that he had learned of the allegations through the media and that he planned to contact the Blackhawks to offer his support and participation in any investigation. The Hawks commissioned an independent review of the matter by the Chicago law firm Jenner & Block, and its findings were released Tuesday. The Blackhawks were fined $2 million by the NHL for their handling of Aldrich's continued employment and eventual dismissal. The lead investigator said Tuesday that team officials did nothing for three weeks after the matter was first discussed May 23 by team officials. The incident was eventually taken to the team's human resources department on July 14 and Aldrich chose to resign rather than go through an internal investigation. The team never investigated the matter until after "John Doe" filed the lawsuit against the team. Wirtz on Tuesday said that Bowman — who resigned from his position Tuesday — was very up front as part of the investigation but suggested that some of his peers were not. Investigators said they spoke to 139 people as part of the four-month probe. As he said in July, Quenneville said Wednesday that he would cooperate when speaking with Bettman. "(I) look forward to continuing to contribute to the process," he told reporters on Wednesday. "I know I respect you all doing your jobs and having your questions as well here, but I won't comment any further until the appropriate time after I meet with the commissioner." In a statement released Tuesday, Bettman said he planned to meet with Quenneville and former Hawks assistant general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff, who is now the general manager of the Winnipeg Jets. Bettman said in the statement he planned to discuss "their roles in the relevant events as detailed in the report. I will reserve judgment on next steps, if any, with respect to them." Quenneville said the matter of his meeting with Bettman was discussed internally Wednesday with his fellow coaches. Asked if he worried about his meeting becoming a distraction, Quenneville said, "I think we try to eliminate all distractions and that was one of them."