Insider shares details of rumored conflict between NHL GM and his head coach.

There were some major rumors last week of a perceived conflict between Chicago Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville and Blackhawks genera manager Stan Bowman, and now we may have a better idea of why that was exactly. 

On Monday Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman shed some light on the conflict, and as expected it seems that Quenneville strongly disagreed with some of the moves made by Bowman so far in the offseason. 

While some may have believed Quenneville's displeasure was connected to the trade of Artemi Panarin, according to Friedman it was the decision to trade defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson on Friday that irked Quenneville. 

“I think the one that probably got Quenneville stunned was Hjalmarsson,” said Friedman as per Fanrag's Chris Nichols. “Quenneville loves Hjalmarsson. I think that Hjalmarsson is one of the more underrated players in all of the NHL. I’ll tell you this: I don’t know if he’ll ever get Hall of Fame consideration, but I think he’s that good."

...

“And I think that’s the guy that Quenneville was upset to lose.”

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If Quenneville believes that Hjalmarsson is as good as Friedman does, it's no surprise that he would be upset with Bowman for trading him away. Quenneville and Bowman have had a long history of disagreements and it has never pushed the relationship between the two to the breaking point this far, and we don't expect that this one will be the breaking point. 

That being said, should the Blackhawks struggle next season it will be interesting to see who takes the brunt of the blame.