Windsor native Joel Quenneville says he would have done things differently if he had known exactly what had happened to former Chicago Blackhawks prospect Kyle Beach.
Quenneville is speaking out about the scandal for the first time since revelations of what took place rocked the Blackhawks and the hockey world almost three years ago.
Beach was drafted by the Chicago Blackhawks in the first round, 11th overall, in the 2008 NHL entry draft. He was recalled during the 2010 playoffs as a Black Ace with the NHL team, practicing alongside the Blackhawks regulars, but not part of the regular roster.
Beach alleges he was sexually assaulted by then-video coach Brad Aldrich during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs, when he was 20. He filed a lawsuit in May 2021.
Appearing on the Cam and Strick Podcast, Quenneville said "It made me sick to my stomach," after he read the independent investigation by Chicago law firm Jenner & Block into the alleged sexual abuse.
The investigation by Jenner & Block detailed how allegations Beach made against Aldrich were mostly ignored by the Blackhawks organization for several weeks following a meeting on May 23, 2010 to discuss what occurred.
The allegations made by Beach have not been tested in court.
The meeting in question took place shortly after Chicago advanced to the Stanley Cup Final after completing a four-game sweep of San Jose in the Western Conference Final.
Quenneville was summoned to the meeting involving upper levels of management, which was already in progress.
The then-Blackhawks coach said "When I first went into the meeting after the game, I found out in a short amount of time what happened, they asked me if I knew anything about a video coach hanging around the Rockford players, and I didn't know anything about it. They told me that he was hanging around the Rockford players. He was socializing, they're going out to bars, and he might have sent an inappropriate text or two, and that he was bugging them, and that's all I knew.
"I didn't put it all together that it resembled sexual abuse or sexual assault and by not asking more questions, I take ownership on that, I think that had I known more, I think I would have handled it completely differently," said Quenneville.
On Oct. 28, 2021, Quenneville resigned from his position as the head coach of the Florida Panthers, shortly after the release of the Jenner & Block report. He has not coached in the NHL since that time.
The 65-year-old told the podcast he has been educating himself on what happened with the situation and how he could have handled it better.
Quenneville would like to coach again in the NHL but would require approval from NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
The Cam and Strick Podcast is hosted by reporter Andy Strickland, and Cam Janssen, a former NHL player and former member of the Windsor Spitfires.