NHL power rankings: Top 3 greatest coaches of all-time
2. Joel Quenneville
The only man who is on this list that is still coaching today is Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville. Like Arbour, Quenneville was an NHL defenseman who logged 803 regular season games, but is also known better for around the hockey world for his coaching abilities. To this point, he has been an NHL head coach for 23 seasons for four different organizations.
Quenneville’s coaching career began with the Colorado Avalanche organization, where he began as an assistant coach with the Quebec Nordiques for one season, then with the Avalanche for two.
However, midway through his second season as an assistant coach with the Avalanche, he was hired by the St. Louis Blues as their head coach. He was successful from the get go, making the playoffs in each of his first seven seasons with the team. However, due to a slow start in his eighth season, he was fired during the 2003-04 season.
He then became the head coach of the Avalanche for three seasons before agreeing to become the head coach of the Chicago Blackhawks for the 2008-09 season, which is when his coaching career really took off.
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Quenneville led the Blackhawks to three cups between the years of 2010 to 2015, which is extremely impressive in the salary cap era. The Blackhawks made the playoffs for the first nine years with him as their coach, before finally missing the postseason during his tenth season. The team brought him back for an eleventh season but fired him just 15 games in as they were off to a rough start.
Quenneville now coaches the Florida Panthers and will have chance to compete for yet another Stanley Cup whenever the playoffs resume this summer. The 61-year-old is second all time in games coached at 1636, second all time in wins with 890 wins, and sits tied for eighth with his 3 Stanley Cup Championships.
He also has a Jack Adams Award to his name, which he won after the 1999-2000 season while coaching the Blues. He is without a doubt a Hall of Famer and will certainly be inducted whenever his coaching career comes to an end.