Rumor mill: John Quenneville and Stan Bowman back in the NHL?

There’s been a lot of movement in the NHL in recent weeks.

The Flames have announced that Brad Treliving will not be back with the team next year…

The Penguins fired Ron Hextall after the team failed to qualify for the playoffs…

The Leafs announced earlier this morning that they would not be renewing Kyle Dubas’ contract, thus ending his stay in the Queen City…

This time of year, we often see big personnel moves, and that’s exactly what’s happening right now.

Some names have already begun to circulate for the vacant general manager positions in Pittsburgh, Toronto and Philadelphia. We’ve seen (among others) Marc Bergevin linked to the Flames and Penguins, but all indications are that he’ll have to wait before finding a new job as GM.

However, there may be two cases we’ve forgotten about that could become available to the various teams we’ve been talking about. These are John Quenneville and Stan Bowman.

Darren Dreger reported on Twitter earlier today that Gary Bettman would be meeting John Quenneville shortly to “discuss his status”, and added that Bowman has been courted by some of the league’s teams.

But, remember, before the latter have a chance to return to National League action, the NHL will have to give its approval for it to happen.

Both men are in a precarious position with the whole sexual assault affair that took place while they were with the Blackhawks.

Understandably, their return to the NHL is far from a guarantee at the time of writing.

But, should the scenario become a reality… I find it hard to believe that they’ll be out of work for a while, considering their respective roadmaps.

To tie in with everything we’ve been saying since the beginning of this article, Georges Laraque believes Bowman would be “the ideal candidate” for the Leafs.

Darren Dreger, on the other hand, has a rather different view. He sees Brad Treliving as GM in Toronto because we know how unafraid he is of making big moves.

Given that we all know that some star players could leave the team, even if it’s a difficult decision…

It all makes sense.

In reality, the Leafs didn’t necessarily want to fire Kyle Dubas.

At least, that’s what we understood when Brendan Shanahan said openly at a press conference earlier today that he had expressed his desire to keep Dubas in Toronto after the most recent trade deadline.

It’s often said that things change quickly in the National League… and this is a fine example.

Rumor season is upon us in the NHL, and you know as well as I do how exciting this time of year is for everyone.

We can’t expect any big decisions to be made in the next few days… But let’s not forget either that the draft is only six weeks away.

The various teams will want to get their problems sorted out before they get to the draft, we all agree on that.

In Brief

– I’ve got a lot on my mind.

What’s your favorite Andrew Shaw memory?

🎧: https://t.co/mRBAGPEKSl
🍎: https://t.co/L6QTN3zl1T
📺: https://t.co/YNanNXv01f#RawKnucklesPodcast #AndrewShaw #BlackHawks pic.twitter.com/XU22nbPduG

– The Raw Knuckles Podcast (@RawKnucklesPod) May 19, 2023

– Calvary, hehe.

– Not a funny story.

– I have nothing to add.