SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Joel Quenneville has resigned as head coach of the Florida Panthers.
The decision follows a Thursday meeting with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and comes two days after he was among those implicated for not swiftly responding to allegations by a Chicago Blackhawks player in 2010 of being sexually assaulted by another coach.
An investigation released Tuesday said Quenneville and others in the Blackhawks organization did not prioritize addressing Kyle Beach’s allegations, presumably because they did not want to take away from the team’s push toward a championship. Quenneville was head coach of the Blackhawks at the time.
Quenneville had said as recently as Wednesday morning that he was unaware of the allegations until this summer. But in an interview that aired Wednesday evening on TSN, Beach said there was “absolutely no way” Quenneville could deny knowing about the allegations.
At 7-0-0, the Panthers are off to their best start in the franchise’s 28-year history.
