General manager Ron Francis and the Seattle Kraken have selected John Quenneville from the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2021 NHL Expansion Draft.
About Quenneville
After being drafted 30th overall in 2014 by the New Jersey Devils, Quenneville has split his time between the NHL and AHL during his five-year professional career. In total, he has played 190 total AHL games and 42 games at the NHL level, scoring just two goals, three assists, and five points in his career.
The second cousin of current Florida Panthers head coach Joel Quenneville made his NHL debut on Dec. 1, 2016, and oddly enough, it came against the Chicago Blackhawks — coached by his cousin. The younger Quenneville didn’t register a point in the game, with the Devils losing 4-3 in overtime. This was the first of 12 games in the first NHL stint of his career, scoring one goal and three assists for four points in the process, the most he’s put up in an NHL season so far. He added 14 goals and 46 points in 58 games for the Albany Devils during the 2016-17 season as well.
Related: Seattle Expansion Draft Tracker
He spent most of his 2017-18 season in the AHL, playing just two games for New Jersey while not registering a point. He played 43 games for the newly relocated Binghamton Devils, scoring 14 goals and 20 assists for 34 points that year. The 2018-19 season was more of the same, with Quenneville playing just 19 of his 56 games in New Jersey that year. Scoring just one goal in the NHL while scoring 18 goals and 39 points in 37 games with Binghamton in the AHL.
That offseason, he was traded to the Blackhawks in exchange for John Hayden, inking a two-year contract extension with the team he was traded to six days after the trade. Since then, he has played just nine total regular-season games and two postseason games with the team, not registering a point in any of them.
He spent most of the next two seasons with the AHL’s Rockford IceHogs, playing in 36 games and scoring 13 goals, nine assists, and 22 points in 2019-20 and scoring just one goal and one assist for two points in 16 AHL games this past season.
What Quenneville Brings to the Kraken
While Quenneville may not crack the NHL roster next season, he provides the team with organizational depth, as the Kraken are just starting to develop their team. At 25 years old, he is still young enough to take a chance on and see if he can develop into the prospect he was touted to be in 2014.
Quenneville is versatile and can play both center and wing minutes, so he can fill in for anyone in the forward core if they go down with an injury, a role he played on a consistent basis in New Jersey. While he’s not the flashiest pick Seattle could’ve gone with, he still gives the team the depth they need if someone goes down and can do so on a team-friendly contract.
He has also proven to be a solid producer at the AHL level and can be a player that can help future draft picks grow before they make it to the NHL. Quenneville is an unrestricted free agent, however, so the two sides will need to agree on a contract in order for him to even hit the ice in Seattle.
Other Notable Blackhawks Left Unprotected
- F Vinnie Hinostroza
- F Brandon Pirri
- D Calvin de Haan
- D Nikita Zadorov
- G Collin Delia
- G Malcolm Subban
