He was once the bright, young future of the Toronto Maple Leafs blue line. That is, until he got caught up in Harold Ballard’s destruction of the team. His playing career may not have been that notable, but Joel Quenneville has certainly made up for it behind the bench.
Joel Quenneville – The Player
Quenneville played his junior hockey with the Windsor Spitfires of the Ontario Hockey League (at the time the OMJHL). He appeared with the Spitfires for three years from 1975-76 to 1977-78. In his final year, the defenseman scored 27 goals and assisted on 76 for 103 points in 66 games. 1977-78 was a record breaking year in the OHL with Bobby Smith of the Ottawa 67’s and Wayne Gretzky of the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds shattering marks for assists and points. Yet, Joel still finished sixth in the league with his assist total.
The Toronto Maple Leafs selected him in the second round of the 1978 NHL Amateur Draft, 21st overall. Quenneville went on to a decent National Hockey League career, playing 803 regular season games between 1978-79 and 1990-91 with the Maple Leafs, Colorado Rockies, New Jersey Devils, Hartford Whalers and Washington Capitals.
For a man that would become so successful in the Stanley Cup playoffs as a coach, Joe played in just 32 post season games as a player. Most of his playoff games were played in a Hartford Whalers jersey.
He was a bright young star with Toronto when he was shipped off in a December 29th trade in his second year to the lowly Colorado Rockies, along with Lanny McDonald, for Pat Hickey and Wilf Paiement. After the Rockies moved to New Jersey to become the Devils, Joel was traded to the Flames in the off-season in 1983 with Steve Tambellini for Mel Bridgeman and Phil Russell. His days in Calgary lasted less than a month and before he played a game with the club, he was shipped to the Hartford Whalers.
Quenneville played one final year of professional hockey in 1991-92 with the St. John’s Maple Leafs of the American Hockey League. Coaching those Maple Leafs was Marc Crawford. Crawford was in his first year as a pro head coach after two in the OHL with the Cornwall Royals. Both Crawford and Quenneville would later have stints as head coach of the Colorado Avalanche. St. John’s reached the Calder Cup finals that year before losing in seven games to the Adirondack Red Wings. Joel acted as a player / assistant coach under Crawford.
Joel Quenneville – The Coach
In 1993-94, Quenneville took his first job as a head coach with the Springfield Indians in the AHL. In 1996-97, he took his first job as an NHL bench boss with the St. Louis Blues and has been in the league since. After coaching the Blues and Avalanche, Joel took his present position with the Chicago Blackhawks, replacing Denis Savard four games into the 2008-09 season. The Hawks reached the Western Conference Final that year before losing out to the Detroit Red Wings in five games. The following year, the Blackhawks were Stanley Cup champions with a 4-2 victory over the Philadelphia Flyers.
Quenneville has yet to coach a team to a below .500 season in the National Hockey League. He was awarded the Jack Adams Award in 1999-00 with the Blues. The following year, he led the team to the Western Conference Final before falling to the Colorado Avalanche, four games to one.
Joel Quenneville – Rookie Card
The Joel Quenneville rookie card appeared as number 336 in the 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee set. The card is considered a common card in the set dominated by the Wayne Gretzky rookie card. Topps did not carry Quenneville that year and his first Topps card came as number 19 in their 1980-81 set. His O-Pee-Chee rookie card is the only hockey card with Quenneville wearing a Maple Leafs jersey.