Stephane Quintal to replace Brendan Shanahan as chief disciplinarian

With Brendan Shanahan officially joining the Toronto Maple Leafs front office, the league will be handing over the chief disciplinarian reins to Stephane Quintal, as first a reported by from Sportsnet 590 the Fan's David Alter.

"Effective with Thursday night's games and for the balance of the regular season and throughout the upcoming Stanley Cup Playoffs, Stephane Quintal assumes the role of conducting hearings and administering supplementary discipline," commented the NHL in the release. 

TSN's Pierre LeBrun has also reported that Quintal will be named as a short-term replacement for Shanahan, and will lead the Department of Player Safety for the rest of the season; although NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly will be heavily involved in overseeing Quintal's work, and will have the final say on suspensions.

This new concentration of authority in the hands of the deputy commissioner represents a significant departure from how the NHL's disciplinary apparatus functioned under Shanahan.  LeBrun suspects that Quintal's main function will be to bear the brunt of abuse from league executives unhappy with a supplemental disciplinary decision (or lack thereof).

As a player, Quintal had a reputation as a physical defenseman. He's a veteran of over 1,000 NHL games, and amassed over 1,300 penalty minutes during his NHL career. Quintal joined the NHL's Department of Player Safety in 2011, and served on the joint NHL/IIHF disciplinary panel for men's ice hockey at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games.