Joel Quenneville is the greatest NHL coach of all-time
The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Montreal Canadiens 2-1 on Thursday evening. That puts Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville alone in second place on the all-time wins list. He trails only Scotty Bowman (1,244) in career wins. Quenneville doesn’t often get the credit that he deserves because the Jack Adams Trophy rarely awards coaches who are expected to win. He’s only won one Jack Adams Trophy, and that was back in 1999-00.
When Quenneville retires, his accomplishments should make him a no-brainer for induction into the Hockey Hall of Fame. However, his legacy should be even greater because he’s the greatest NHL head coach of all-time.
Consistency
Joel Quenneville has had remarkably consistent success during his career. He’s never had a point percentage below .538 and has only missed the playoffs twice in his career – he’s made the postseason in 17 of his 19 seasons. Moreover, Quenneville has only been eliminated in the first round five times. The playoffs tend to be a crapshoot, so that’s quite impressive.
While in Chicaco, he has found great success with three Stanley Cups despite dealing with a revolving door of moving parts because of the salary cap. Quenneville’s success has been as consistent as anyone’s. Factor in how hard it is to maintain a steady franchise in the modern NHL and he’s arguably the best of all-time. At worst, he’s certainly in the discussion.
Parity
Joel Quenneville has had to deal with constant parity for his entire career. When he started coaching during the 1996-97 season when there were 26 NHL teams. More NHL teams means that there is less talent per club. He’s had to coach a good portion of his career with the salary cap, which further spreads out talent and makes it difficult to sustain success.
Scotty Bowman starting coaching in 1967 when there were only 12 teams, and has won an impressive nine Stanley Cups. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he’s a better coach. However, he won five Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens during their dynasty in the 1970s. The most teams in the NHL during that span? Seventeen. And most of those were expansion teams. The Canadiens were the team with the most resources, and with no salary cap they were allowed to sign pretty much anyone they wanted.
He also won a Stanley Cup with the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 1992 season. The Penguins were embarrassingly stacked that season. The team had six Hall of Famers: Mario Lemieux, Joe Mullen, Larry Murphy, Ron Francis, Bryan Trottier, and Paul Coffey. They also had a future one in Jaromir Jagr. All seven of them played significant roles with the team. Quenneville’s Blackhawks will have, at most, four with Jonathan Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith, and Marian Hossa.
Bowman’s next three Stanley Cups came with another stacked dynasty: the Detroit Red Wings. One could argue that’s how Quenneville has won his three Stanley Cups, but keep in mind that dynasties were far easier to build together before the salary cap. The Red Wings have won just one Stanley Cup with the salary cap.
Adaptability and Flexibility
Having Hossa, Kane, Toews and Keith has certainly helped Joel Quenneville win with the Blackhawks, but he has proven that he can find success despite losing guys and adding new players to his team. Quenneville had to enter this current season without four of his top 10 point producers from the previous year (Brandon Saad, Brad Richards, Patrick Sharp, and Kris Versteeg) and without a defenseman who saw the fourth most ice time per game of any Blackhawks skater (Johnny Oduya). A true test of a great coach is being able to have success no matter who is on his roster. Joel Quenneville has proven himself as the best ever in that regard.
This season has shown Quenneville’s flexibility and adaptability. He has typically been very slow to trust younger players, preferring veterans. Yet this season he hasn’t had that luxury. So he has given guys like Teuvo Teravainen, Eric Gustafsson, and Artemi Panarin each over 14 minutes of ice time per game. He’s adapted to his roster even though it has forced him out of his comfort zone regarding young players. That’s what the best coaches do – they adapt.
With all the parity in the modern NHL, it’s extremely difficult to have consistent success with all the moving parts and spread out talent. Quenneville’s coaching ability allows his front office far more flexibility, which makes him invaluable to the Blackhawks. They’d agree with that statement considering they just extended him for three more seasons. It’s also extremely hard to build a dynasty in the modern NHL. Quenneville has been arguably the biggest reason for the Blackhawks recent dynasty.
On paper, Scotty Bowman’s numbers might appear to blow Joel Quenneville’s out of the water. Placed in proper context, Quenneville has done more with less, all while facing numerous hurdles that Bowman didn’t have to worry about. Both are great, but give me Quenneville over Bowman – or any head coach in history, for that matter.