Montreal Canadiens: A seperation of owner and president
The Montreal Canadiens have had Geoff Molson as Owner, President and CEO of the team but it may be time to add a new face and voice to the program.
There are a lot of things that happen behind the scenes in an organization. Right now, Marc Bergevin is the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens, but the moves he makes still have to be rung up the flagpole to the presidency. It depends on who has the title.
Some presidents let the general manager do their thing with confidence that they have good judgement. Other times they want to know every single thing that’s happening and will sometimes even have their own input into a decision. We’ve heard of examples of when this goes completely wrong, and teams have suffered for it.
So why is this a point of interest? There’s been a growing conversation on social media on whether the Habs should hire someone to be the sole President of Hockey Operations. Francois Gagnon of RDS talked to Tony Marino on TSN 690 about it where he said Molson should detach himself a little more.
He should put in between him and his general manager, a President of Hockey Operations who could be a buffer. Who could be a guy who is going to come back to the owner and say, “You know what that plan is good because of this and that; I don’t like this plan becase of this and that.” A President of Hockey Operations who could challenge the GM, who could be his accomplish, his mentor, his go-to guy when he feels he needs to do something.
Gagnon also said something important in that maintaining a level of distance relationship-wise between the general manager and president is key.
It’s not a bad idea and a better move from Molson than by continuously voicing his confidence in something that isn’t working. Names such as Saku Koivu, Patrick Roy, and Martin Brodeur have been thrown around as possibilities each who have had lustrious careers in the NHL.
Other teams have pretty big names in charge, for example, Luc Robitaille in LA and Brendan Shanahan in Toronto.
Granted nobody knows what the Habs plan is in that department except those in-house. I’m just jumping into the conversation. Having a marque president in the fold doesn’t work for everyone, but at this point, it may be worth a shot.
Do you think the Habs need a new team president? If so, who? Let us know your thoughts down below.