Former NHL coach Joel Quenneville will be meeting with commissioner Gary Bettman after the season to discuss reinstatement, Sportsnet can confirm.
Quenneville, 64, resigned Oct. 28, 2021, as coach of the Florida Panthers hours after meeting with Bettman to discuss his role in the Chicago Blackhawks' sexual abuse scandal.
Quenneville was coach of the Blackhawks in 2010 when the alleged abuse took place.
More than one team is interested in hiring Quenneville, Sportsnet can confirm.
Quenneville coached the Panthers to seven straight wins to open the 2021-22 season, taking to the bench one final time just over an hour after Kyle Beach identified himself as the alleged victim of sexual abuse by a former Blackhawks assistant coach.
One day earlier, an independent investigation was released, finding that the allegations Beach made against then-assistant Brad Aldrich were largely ignored by the team for three weeks after a May 23, 2010, meeting discussing them took place.
That was the same day Chicago finished off a four-game sweep of San Jose to reach the Stanley Cup Final, and Beach told TSN that based on what others involved have said he believes that Quenneville thought "trying to win a Stanley Cup was more important than sexual assault."
Quenneville, who served as head coach of the Blackhawks from 2008 to 2018 before being hired by Florida in 2019, said in July 2021 that he'd "first learned of these allegations through the media earlier this summer" in a statement provided by the Panthers to the Associated Press.
However, the findings of the investigation into the Blackhawks' handling of the situation, conducted by Jenner & Block LLP law firm, contradicted the claims made by Quenneville.
Quenneville is the second-winningest coach in NHL history, his 969 victories trailing only the 1,244 amassed by Scotty Bowman.
The native of Windsor, Ont., is a member of the Windsor/Essex County Sports Hall of Fame. He guided the Blackhawks to three Stanley Cup titles — in 2010, '13 and '15.
--with files from The Associated Press
