Rumor: Quenneville to leave the Panthers and the Seattle Kraken may be involved.

The Seattle Kraken haven't even played a single game yet but they are already making waves in the National Hockey League, waves that could potentially even impact the ongoing Stanley Cup Playoffs. 

On Saturday New York Rangers insider Larry Brooks dropped a bombshell of a rumour when he revealed that he has begun to hear whispers that have linked veteran NHL head coach Joel Quenneville to the Seattle Kraken job. The rumor is a big one not only because Quenneville is obviously a decorated name in the coaching world but primarily due to the fact that he is currently behind the bench of a team battling in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the Florida Panthers.

Quenneville, who is currently 62 years old, is arguably the most decorated coach that is currently actively competing in the National Hockey League. The man has been a head coach for nearly 2,000 games in the NHL when combining his numbers from both the regular season and the playoffs, and when it comes to the playoffs very few coaches can boast the level of success that he has achieved. Quenneville led the Chicago Blackhawks to an extremely impressive 3 Stanley Cup titles during his time behind the bench with that organization and even prior to becoming a head coach he captured a Stanley Cup as an assistant coach with the Colorado Avalanche all the way back in 1996. 

Quenneville also had a lengthy career in the NHL as a player prior to stepping behind the bench, appearing in over 800 career regular season games as a player and an additional 32 playoff games on top of that. This gives him a unique ability to relate to players on a peer to peer level and he brings with it the respect that he commands as one of the most successful coaches in recent memory in the league.

Brooks speculates that the reason Seattle Kraken general manager Ron Francis may have been so patient with his coaching selection may be because he has his sights set firmly on Quenneville, something that would certainly make sense when you consider that we are very close to the Kraken entering the league with their expansion draft set to be held just two months from now on the 21st of July.

We won't be able to verify this rumor at least until the Panthers have officially been eliminated, so stay tuned for more details on this one.