In the long hockey career of Joel Quenneville, there have been at least three life-changing events:
The first was being traded by the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1980. As a boy growing up in Windsor, Ontario, Quenneville’s NHL allegiance rested not with the Red Wings across the Detroit River, but with the Leafs. Playing for the team as a rookie in 1978 was the realization of a dream.
The second was the uprooting of the Quebec Nordiques in 1995. As an assistant with the Nordiques, Quenneville had just completed his first season coaching in the NHL. His family had just settled into Quebec City, but it was time to move again.
The third was being dismissed from his job as St. Louis Blues head coach in March 2004. After coaching the Blues for parts of eight winning seasons, Quenneville wasn’t sure where to turn.
In all three cases, the next stop for Quenneville has been Denver. The first two times it was the place he regained his bearings, and ultimately found success. Another Denver rebirth begins tonight when he’ll be behind the bench for his first game as Avalanche coach in the season opener at Edmonton. Will he find success in Denver again?
“No question about it,” said Hall of Fame forward Lanny McDonald, who was traded along with Quenneville to the Colorado Rockies, Denver’s first NHL franchise. “Joel is one of the best people I’ve ever known in hockey. He’s one of those people who can’t be anything but successful. He works too hard, is too smart and is too good a person to truly fail at anything.”
Quenneville, 47, knows the life of a coach in pro sports is anything but secure. But he is confident he, his wife, Elizabeth, a.k.a. “Boo,” and children Dylan, Lily and Anna will stay in Denver for a good while this time.
“I better, because when they got here they said, ‘Daddy, you better be here for a while because we’re not going anywhere else,”‘ Quenneville said. “That’s how much they love it here. When it got to be five, six, seven years in St. Louis, (we) had to make the kids aware that, hey, we might not be in St. Louis forever. But we feel very fortunate to end up where we did.”
Tough transition
Quenneville’s third move to Denver is less jarring than his first. As a 20-year-old defenseman with the Maple Leafs, Quenneville was on a team that seemed to be on the rise. He thought he would be one of the team’s building blocks when he received the shocking news he and McDonald had been shipped to the dismal Rockies.
“We went from being on a team one or two players away, in probably the best market of them all, to a team out West that was a perennial cellar-dweller,” McDonald said. “I remember the plane ride out to Denver was tough for him.”
That’s an understatement, Quenneville said.
“I was devastated,” he said. “I’d never been traded, I lived at home playing junior my first year and a half with the Leafs (organization), and things were going relatively well. It was a shock. But it was comforting to know I went with Lanny. It was tough at the airport when I saw Lanny saying goodbye to his family. (His wife) was due to have their second child any day, so what he was dealing with was a different thing, and that helped me learn. I was really lucky I was around Lanny as a mentor.”
Quenneville and McDonald rented a house in southeast Denver, where “Mac was definitely the father of the house.” Quenneville became close to McDonald’s family during their frequent visits the first year in Denver, and McDonald’s kids still call him “Uncle Joel.”
When the shock of the move wore off, Quenneville began to enjoy playing in Denver, even though the team wasn’t good. The trade toughened Quenne- ville to the business aspects of the NHL, and he started thinking about what he’d do if his hockey career came to a sudden halt.
Preparing for future
In the final few years of his career, mostly with the Hartford Whalers, Quenneville earned a stockbroker’s license in Connecticut. During the offseason, Quenneville traded equities through the New York Stock Exchange.
But shortly after his NHL playing career ended in 1991, Quenneville received a call from former Maple Leafs general manager Cliff Fletcher, asking if he wanted to coach in the team’s minor-league system. Quenneville coached along with Marc Crawford with St. John’s of the American Hockey League before Quebec Nordiques general manager Pierre Lacroix recruited them. Crawford became the Nordiques’ head coach, and Quenneville an assistant in 1994.
In 1995, both moved with the team to Denver where it was renamed the Avalanche. After Quenneville helped the Avs win the Stanley Cup in 1996, he took the head coaching job with St. Louis on Jan. 6, 1997, and compiled a 307-191-77-18 record with the Blues before being fired in 2004.
“He’s the best coach I ever played for,” Blues forward Keith Tkachuk said. “He treats everybody like men. He never had a losing season with us, not even when they let him go. He’s going to be great for Colorado. They’ll still be a very good team with him as a coach.”
Because the 2004-05 season was canceled during the NHL labor impasse, Quenneville has had a lot of unexpected time with his family the past 12 months. He was hired by Colorado on July 7, 2004. Quenne- ville says he enjoyed the family time, but he can’t wait for today’s 8 p.m. season opener.
Still the same ol’ fella
Is Quenneville – known for being defensive-minded – a different coach than before? Did the time off cause him to reflect on things he might change?
“I don’t think I’ve changed too much,” he said. “The way we want to play is very comparable to the way we’ve been in the past. We want to be a group that’s around the puck, and when we don’t have it, get after it right away. As a coach, you’ve got to be yourself. I don’t think I’ve changed too much, but you might ask the players and coaches that have been around me.”
Said Avs captain Joe Sakic, the only player left from the Avs’ inaugural season: “Still the same guy, Joel. Very approachable for players, and a good guy. He’s proven he’s a great coach in this league, and I know I’m excited he’s here. I think all the other guys are, too.”
Staff writer Adrian Dater can be reached at 303-820-5454 or adater@denverpost.com.
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SPOTLIGHT ON CHRIS PRONGER
The former St. Louis and Hartford standout was traded to the Oilers last summer. Pronger had some of his best seasons playing for Avs coach Joel Quenneville. Pronger might not find the new NHL to his liking in his zone. He is a physical player.
WELCOME BACK: The Avs retained center Brett McLean after putting him on waivers Monday and reassigned rookie Cody McCormick to Lowell of the American Hockey League.
COLORADO AT EDMONTON8 tonight, ALT
AVALANCHE
STARTERS
Left wing: Andrew Brunette
Center: Joe Sakic
Right wing: Antti Laaksonen
Defense: Rob Blake
Defense: Karlis Skrastins
Goalie: David Aebischer
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OILERS
STARTERS
Left wing: Ryan Smyth
Center: Shawn Horcoff
Right wing: Radek Dvorak
Defense: Chris Pronger
Defense: Steve Staios
Goalie: Ty Conklin
