JOEL QUENNEVILLE
HEAD COACH

Joel Quenneville enters his second season with the Blackhawks after being named the 37th head coach in franchise history on October 16, 2008. He originally joined the organization as a pro scout in September 2008.

In his first season as the Blackhawks’ bench boss, Quenneville guided the team to its first playoff appearance since 2001, taking them all the way to the Western Conference Finals before losing in five games to Detroit. In Quenneville’s 78 regular-season games as Blackhawks head coach, the team compiled a record of 45-22-11 and earned the conference’s fourth seed in the 2009 Stanley Cup Playoffs. Quenneville has been a proven winner throughout his career, registering a .597 regular-season winning percentage (483-305-129) in parts of 12 years as a head coach in the NHL, including seven full seasons with the St. Louis Blues (1996-2004) and three with the Colorado Avalanche (2005-08). The Windsor, Ontario native has guided ten of his 12 teams to the postseason, which includes reaching at least the second round on seven occasions.

One of only three men in the history of the NHL to have played in and coached 800 or more games, Quenneville has notched at least 40 wins in eight of his nine full seasons as a head coach, which includes a career-best 51 victories – and 113 points – in 1999-2000 with St. Louis when the team captured the President’s Trophy for the league’s best record. He is the winningest coach in Blues history, having compiled a 307-191-95 record at that post. Quenneville was awarded the 2000 Jack Adams Trophy as the league’s top coach and also served as the head coach of the North American All-Stars at the 2001 NHL All-Star Game.

Quenneville was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the first round (21st overall) of the 1978 NHL Entry Draft. He spent 13 seasons as an NHL defenseman, netting 54 goals, 136 assists, 190 points and 705 penalty minutes in 803 career games with the Toronto Maple Leafs (1979-80), Colorado Rockies (1980-82), New Jersey Devils (1982-83), Hartford Whalers (1983-90) and Washington Capitals (1990-91).

He retired as an active player after the 1991-92 season, when he served as a player-coach for the American Hockey League’s St. John’s Maple Leafs. Quenneville broke into coaching with the AHL’s Springfield Indians before serving as an assistant coach for the Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche organization for two and a half seasons. He helped Colorado capture the 1996 Stanley Cup in that position before accepting his first NHL head coaching job with St. Louis for the 1996-97 campaign.

Quenneville and his wife, Elizabeth, have three children: Dylan, Lily and Anna.

Joel Quenneville’s NHL Head Coaching Record