Quenneville officially resigns as head coach of the Panthers

Joel Quenneville is officially out as the head coach of the Florida Panthers. The second all-time most winningest coach in NHL history has resigned from his position and the team has announced that an interim head coach will be named soon.

Quenneville himself has released a statement:

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has also released a statement:

If I'm reading between the lines correctly here, this effectively looks like an expulsion from the NHL for Quenneville courtesy of commissioner Bettman. 

TSN's Chris Johnston has also reported that there will be no further punishment forthcoming for Quenneville:

Furthermore, the NHL's Coaches Union has released its own statement:

Quenneville, of course, is alleged to have had intimate knowledge about the abuse suffered by then Blackhawks prospect Kyle Beach at the hands of the team's then video coach Brad Aldrich. Beach has stated that he himself saw meetings being held by Quenneville in an effort to address the assault.

"I witnessed meetings right after I reported [the assault] to James Gary that were held in Joel Quenneville's office," Beach said yesterday to TSN's Rick Westhead. "There's absolutely no way he can deny knowing it."

Quenneville, meanwhile, has denied having any knowledge of the abuse and has stated that he only learned of it when Beach's allegations became public this past offseason. Again, Beach maintains that Quenneville is lying. Regardless of what happened or didn't happen though, it's clear that Quenneville's meeting with NHL commissioner Gary Bettman earlier today has resulted in Quenneville either resigning from his position with the team or with the team dismissing him. It's also worth noting that Quenneville did indeed coach the Panthers to a 4-1 victory over the Boston Bruins yesterday evening and there were multiple reports that the Panthers had decided to give him "one more game" before officially resigning.

More to come on this breaking news story including official opinion and analysis from across the entire hockey world.