Andrew Brunette, center, talks with players during the third period of a game earlier this season. Brunette takes over as head coach of the Florida Panthers after Joel Quenneville resigned on Thursday. Matt Marton/Associated Press
Andrew Brunette has a chance to be an NHL head coach now, taking over a Florida Panthers team that is off to the best start in franchise history.
It should be a happy time. It is not.
Brunette debuted as the replacement for Joel Quenneville as Florida’s coach on Friday, running the Panthers through a game-day practice in Detroit. And Brunette made clear that the Panthers’ on-ice matters are dwarfed by the bigger issue of the sexual assaults reported by former Chicago Blackhawks player Kyle Beach in 2010 and subsequent cover-up that has engulfed the sport after details came out in recent days.
“It’s a real sad day for hockey, with Kyle Beach and everything he’s gone through,” Brunette said. “You feel for him and what he’s had to deal with. It’s a sad day for our organization, it’s a sad day for our players, it’s a sad day for the game of hockey.”
Quenneville resigned Thursday, two days after the second-winningest coach in NHL history was among those implicated for not swiftly responding to Beach’s allegations of being sexually assaulted by another coach during the 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs.
Quenneville was Chicago’s coach when Beach said he was assaulted by video coach Brad Aldrich. A report into what the Blackhawks did and didn’t do at the time – the inference was the team ignored Beach and prioritized its run to the Cup instead – was released this week, and Quenneville’s job was in immediate jeopardy when it came out.
Brunette was picked as the interim coach shortly after Quenneville’s decision to resign was revealed Thursday night.
“He’s a great guy and I’m sure he’s going to be a great coach for now,” Panthers forward Jonathan Huberdeau said. “It’s not easy for everybody, but we’re going to go through it as a team.”
The Panthers haven’t said if their intention is for Brunette to have the job for a few days, a few weeks or few months. Florida plays Saturday at Boston, then not again until a home game Thursday against Washington.
BLACKHAWKS: Owner Rocky Wirtz wants the Hockey Hall of Fame to cover the name of an assistant coach engraved on the Stanley Cup after the assistant was accused of sexually assaulting a player during the team’s run to the 2010 championship.
In a letter addressed to Hall of Fame chairman Lanny McDonald, dated Thursday, Wirtz writes that Brad Aldrich’s conduct disqualifies him from being included on the Cup, and the team made a mistake by submitting his name.
“I am humbly requesting that the Hockey Hall of Fame consider ‘x-ing’ out his name on the Stanley Cup,” Wirtz wrote. “While nothing can undo what he did, leaving his name on the most prestigious trophy in sports seems profoundly wrong.”
• The NHL Friday not to discipline former Chicago Blackhawks assistant general manager Kevin Cheveldayoff for his role in the club’s mishandling of sexual assault allegations made by a player in 2010.
Commissioner Gary Bettman met with Cheveldayoff, now the GM of the Winnipeg Jets, on Friday morning. He concluded based on that conversation and the team’s investigation that Cheveldayoff was not responsible for improper decisions made at the time.
PENGUINS: A federal lawsuit filed by a former minor league assistant and his wife accuses the Pittsburgh Penguins of negligently retaining a coach who sexually assaulted and harassed her and then retaliating against him for reporting the incident.
Jarrod and Erin Skalde sued the Penguins nearly a year ago in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania, alleging former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton coach Clark Donatelli molested Erin Skalde during an outing on a road trip in 2018. The team is the American Hockey League affiliate of the Penguins and is run by the NHL club.
They also allege that current Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin, who was GM for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and assistant GM for the Penguins at the time, asked Jarrod Skalde to keep the reason for Donatelli’s termination quiet and that the team punished Skalde for reporting the assault and later terminated his position under the guise of pandemic-related staff cuts.
MAPLE LEAFS: Toronto signed defenseman Morgan Rielly to an eight-year, $60 million contract extension Friday with an average annual value of $7.5 million.
The 27-year-old Rielly is the longest-serving current Maple Leaf after being drafted fifth overall in 2012. He has been an alternate captain since 2016.
Rielly has four assists in eight games this season. He has 59 goals and 250 assists in 580 career regular-season games and four goals and 15 assists in 32 playoff games.
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