Panthers fire Bob Boughner, move quickly to hire Joel Quenneville
After firing Bob Boughner, the Florida Panthers are trying to move to the front of the line to hire Joel Quenneville.
Two seasons are all Bob Boughner got as Florida Panthers’ head coach, with an 80-62-22 record and no playoff berths. The team announced Boughner’s dismissal on Sunday, and Joel Quenneville immediately surfaced as a candidate based on general manager Dale Tallon’s comments regarding seeking a “transformative, experienced head coach with Stanley Cup pedigree.”
Quenneville is a three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Chicago Blackhawks, and he’s the second-winningest coach in NHL history, with 890 victories in St. Louis, Colorado and Chicago leaving him behind only Scotty Bowman (1,244 wins).
Upon his being fired by Chicago in early November, Quenneville was automatically going to be a top candidate for any full-time job opening in the NHL. There are now eight openings, with the Buffalo Sabres firing Phil Housley on Sunday as well.
George Richards of The Athletic reported the Panthers were waiting to talk to Quenneville “officially”, which points to the ball rolling in an unofficial capacity before Boughner was formally fired. Tallon hired Quenneville in Chicago, so that back channel was presumably open.
To that end, ESPN’s Greg Wyshynski reported the Panthers have offered Quenneville a multi-year contract worth more than $6 million per year with bonuses. Maple Leafs’ head coach Mike Babcock is currently the NHL’s highest-paid coach, at around $6.25 million (USD) per year.
The Panthers have scheduled a press conference for Monday. But Tallon is trying to remain coy on the reason for it, saying to Richards, “I can’t tell you…That would be our goal. Yep.”
The #FlaPanthers have a press conference scheduled for Monday. Could a new coach — Joel Quenneville — be introduced? “I can’t tell you,” Dale Tallon told me. Then.. “That would be our goal. Yep.” Here is my story on last night, working on a new one now: https://t.co/Dm8dVmrp34
— George Richards (@GeorgeRichards) April 7, 2019
As the Panthers prepare to make a run at Columbus Blue Jackets’ teammates Artemi Panarin and Sergei Bobrovsky in free agency this offseason, Quenneville is an automatic selling point if he’s in place as head coach. Panarin played for Quenneville in Chicago, and the two are professed to have a great relationship.
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Quenneville appeared to have Florida on his radar, however unofficially, as the move to fire Boughner took contract negotiations instantly into the “close to done” stage. The Panthers are set to pay for the privilege of having an experienced coach with a winning pedigree behind the bench, but a bold move has to be made to get an underachieving group to another level.