The Blackhawks have won three cups in 6 years. In a large part, this is due to the coaching abilities of Joel Quenneville, the third winningest coach of all time, a Jack Adams Award winner, and a just stellar coach. He’s probably the best in the league.

But there are some things he just can’t do, whether that’s playing the proper defensemen – Rundblad should have been in instead of Roszival. Ehrhoff should have been in instead of Roszival. We never should have traded Trevor Daley, and that’s on Q not working with the guy. He’s also not really able to develop prospects, preferring the guys who aren’t ready – see Trevor Van Reimsdyk. Most fans would tell you TVR is not ready and could use another year on the top pairing down in Rockford.

So if the Blackhawks were willing to trade Quenneville, and he would become the biggest name on the trade market, what would the Blackhawks get in return? Who would we get to coach this team? And in the end, would it be worth it?

1. The Return

Quenneville, as a three time Cup winning coach, with a Presidents trophy and the Jack Adams as well, would be the biggest trade in years, and he’s a head coach. Where we would send him is the question, because it needs to be someone willing to give up a lot to get him, someone without a ton of trust in their coach, who’s young and looking to win. Usually I’d say Toronto, but they hired Babcock to do what Q would be doing.

I think the proper answer may be Buffalo, although they may stick with Bylsma; Boston, Claude Julien is on a very tight leash now, and his is one of the hottest seats. Sweeney/Neely have been willing to make trades that don’t make a ton of sense to get what they want, so the Hawks could get a first, second, and a solid prospect; Carolina – I couldn’t tell you who their head coach is, and it would help lure talent to Carolina, something the team needs; and Montreal, who should be willing to give up a ton to get someone who can actually lead them back to Stanley Cup victory. Plus, how exciting would the Leafs and Canadiens rivalry be.

Out of these, the answer is trading him to Boston or Montreal, depending on who’s willing to give up the most. Carolina is still a few years away, and an elite coach is not the ultimate answer like it is in Boston and Montreal. Plus, Q’s system fits these two teams better.

What we would ultimately get is something like the first two rounds from either team, and Malcolm Subban from Boston, a goaltender in a system where there’s a lot of goaltender talent and the ultimate replacement for Darling should he leave in the expansion draft or not be re-signed, and perhaps the replacement for Corey Crawford when he ages out, or from Montreal, Philip Danault and Jacob de la Rose, a center and a left wing for a Blackhawks team who could be facing a future without Teuvo Teravainen (possible victim of a Bryan Bickell trade) or Andrew Shaw (cap problems suck), and Danault could be the long term solution at third line center, he knows the system and he has fans in Chicago, and de la Rose fills a hole the Blackhawks were unable to fill this year, in the left wing.

But does the end justify the mean? Is losing our coach, who was with us in the rough times then built us up to the top of a hockey empire, who’s coached through multiple rosters and still won multiple cups, is that something we’re willing to do, for prospects who may or may not play out how we want them to? We’re not getting a sure thing in an Auston Matthews or a Patrick Laine, we’re getting a risk with either pick from Montreal or Boston. Q’s abilities are proven, battle tested, and consistent.

2. The Replacement

We’re not taking Claude Julien or Michel Therrien in return. Stan Bowman is above that, and he knows that if a team is willing to trade what it would take to grab Q that it means their coaching just isn’t at a level where they are content with. As a team continuing to push for Cups for the foreseeable future, Bowman will want a coach at that level. So who do we get to replace Q?

Well, the one guy who’s been rumored to fill either the Anaheim or the Calgary coaching spot is Randy Carlyle, who has won a cup before. But I’m gonna keep my feelings on Carlyle short – I don’t trust what he can do, he’s been out for too long, and if nobody else wanted to hire him for years before now why would we?

Another name is Travis Green from Utica, a talented young coach in the AHL, who played in the NHL when Keith, Seabrook, Toews, and Kane were all entering the league, and a coach that has taken an AHL team to the Calder Finals. He’s young, but he has the talent to be a legit coach in this league. His name is more probable than Carlyle’s, but we would have to give a compensation pick to Vancouver, as Utica is their affiliate.

There’s lists of assistant coaches out there that could fill the role. Q himself was an assistant coach before stepping up midseason the year before we won our first Cup since Dollar Bill. But I doubt an assistant coach could now lead our team into the future and do the same as Q did. Q may be the exception, and I don’t want to take a chance on that may.

But the name I’m most intrigued by is the name I’ve always loved and wanted back on the Hawks – the Portland Winter Hawks former coach Jamie Kompon. He was an assistant coach in the League for 17 years. He’s won back to back cups with Daryl Sutter in LA and with Q in Chicago. I feel like he’s better than Dineen – it’s why we had him first, and while isn’t as talented a GM as Portland would have liked, we have Bowman for that. Kompon would be assisted by long time assistant Mike Kitchen and by Kevin Dineen, at least for the time being. He knows the system from his time here, and it was a system that works.

So maybe the replacement coach is able to ATTEMPT to fill Q’s shoes, but again, Q may be the best coach in the League. It would be a hard thing to do to step in and run this team from the get go, and when you’re filling the shoes of a coach as liked by both fans and players as Q is in Chicago, it’s going to be one of the hardest jobs in hockey. Honestly, we might just be better off putting 80 year old Scotty Bowman back there and rolling with that.

3. Is It Worth It?

Short answer: no.

In the end, the value Q provides is just too much to give up. A new coach would have to ingrain themselves quickly, have to live up to Q’s legacy, and be willing to work with Bowman’s abilities (and inabilities). The shadow of Scotty Bowman in the organization looms large, and while Q looms larger, a new coach may not.

And while he may not be able to give us the best defensive prospects, Bowman is still able to lure foreign players to play here, and I’m sure part of it is Q’s name. When we can get a Kempny for every Johns we lose, it’s a fair enough deal and the hardest part of development is already done.

The problems with this team, in the end, did not lay with Q, aside from the Roszival thing. Seriously, he never played well this year, and Bowman went through three guys trying to erase the mistake of re-signing him.