The head of the department was initially Brendan Shanahan, who left his position after the completion of the 2013–14 regular season to become president of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

On September 8, 2014, the NHL named Quintal the permanent head of the department with the title of senior vice president of player safety.

[1] Quintal continued Shanahan's practice of releasing videos explaining his rulings on plays that were sent to the league office for review.

However, he only narrated French-language videos for incidents involving the Canadiens or Ottawa Senators, a practice dating to when Shanahan ran the department.

After taking over the job from Brendan Shanahan on April 11, 2014, Quintal was quickly faced with a repeat offender in the form of Minnesota Wild forward Matt Cooke.