Florida Panthers interested in Quenneville
ESPN reported Sunday morning that the Florida Panthers received permission from the Chicago Blackhawks to speak with Joel Quenneville about their head-coaching vacancy.
Hours later, Hawks general manager Stan Bowman confirmed that his team gave Quenneville the OK to speak with "a couple of teams."
ESPN's report is that the Panthers offered Quenneville a multiyear contract in excess of $6 million a year with bonuses. Florida Dale Tallon hired Quenneville to coach the Hawks four games into the 2008-09 season.
Quenneville, who went on to help the Blackhawks claim three Stanley Cup titles, is now the second-winningest coach in NHL history with 890 victories.
"First reaction would be happy for him," Patrick Kane said. "Happy for Dale as well. I know they kind of started off together here, so I'm sure they'll put together a good team and win a lot of games."
Said Jonathan Toews on what his reaction would be to facing a Quenneville-coached team next season: "Would definitely crack a smile seeing him on the bench, and I'm sure he would do the same. Would be pretty cool to see him on the ice."
Quenneville would replace Bob Boughner, who was fired Saturday night. The Panthers went 36-32-14, finishing 10th in the Eastern Conference and 12 points out of the wild card.
Ward's future:
Goaltender Cam Ward, who signed a one-year, $3 million deal with the Hawks last off-season, isn't sure if he will play next season or if he will retire. Ward went 16-12-4 with an .897 save percentage and 3.67 goals-against average.
"I absolutely loved my time in Chicago," Ward said. "The organization is unbelievable - the players, the core. The future is headed in the right direction.
"I would say if I were to come back and play, this would certainly be the place that I would want to come back to. It was an honor to put on the Blackhawks uniform and play in front of such a great fan base. But I just don't know that answer yet, and I don't know if that's in their plans either."
So happy together:
Hawks coach Jeremy Colliton played Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane together during large stretches this season and said he plans on doing that again at times in 2019-20.
"They're two guys who can think the game on a really high level, and so it's nice to play them together," Colliton said. "The challenge is, who's the third guy? (Drake) Caggiula seemed like a fit, and that's an option for us. …
"We want to be able to win both ways. … You've got to be able to win with both looks."
Draft lottery:
According to tankathon.com, the Blackhawks have a 2.5 percent chance of winning the draft lottery and an 8.3 percent chance of moving into the top three. The Hawks currently sit in the 12th spot. Ottawa (18.5 for top pick; 49.4 percent top three) has the best odds, but Colorado owns that pick.
The lottery results will be shown on NHL Network at 8 p.m. (CDT) on Tuesday.
Slap shots:
Patrick Kane finished the season with a career-high 110 points (44G, 66A). He became the fourth American-born player to reach that number, joining Kevin Stevens (twice), Pat LaFontaine and Joe Mullen. … Kane's 110 points were good for third in the NHL, behind Tampa Bay's Nikita Kucherov (128) and Edmonton's Connor McDavid (116). …
Erik Gustafsson (17G, 43A) became the seventh Hawks D-man to post 60 points in a season. Gustafsson's 17 goals tied for third in the NHL. …
The Hawks finished with the worst penalty kill in the league (72.7 percent). That also is the worst rate in the league since 1988-89, when Toronto finished with the same number. …
The Hawks reassigned goalie Kevin Lankinen to Rockford on Sunday. With Corey Crawford suffering a groin injury against Dallas on Friday, Lankinen backed up Cam Ward at Nashville on Saturday.