Montreal Canadiens Losing Rick Dudley Should Improve Pro Scouting
The Montreal Canadiens lost a piece of their management team when Rick Dudley left for the Carolina Hurricanes. This could lead to a better pro scouting department with the Habs.
The Montreal Canadiens lost their Vice President of Hockey Operations earlier this week as Rick Dudley left the organization to take on a similar role with the Carolina Hurricanes. His contract was set to expire, so it seems his departure was a mutual agreement with general manager Marc Bergevin.
National Hockey League teams have been assembling much larger management group in recent years. It wasn’t long ago that there weren’t many more people around than a general manager, a president and a handful of scouts who were out and about drinking awful coffee.
Today, most teams, especially the wealthy ones like the Canadiens, had to hammer out a few walls in the press box to make room for more chairs. Dudley’s job title didn’t even exist two lockouts ago, which really isn’t that long (thanks for the game-less Autumn’s Bettman!)
The nature of the large management team means there are usually a handful of people making big decisions. Due to this, it is hard to say exactly what Dudley’s day-to-day duties were with the Montreal Canadiens.
However, he could most accurately be described as Bergevin’s right-hand man. A sounding board of sorts. Bergevin was a rookie general manager when hired by the Canadiens in 2012, and brought along a cohort from his days with the Chicago Blackhawks to help guide him along.
Dudley has lots of experience, but has he changed with the times?
Dudley had a lot of experience in NHL front offices. He worked as a head coach, general manager, and various other management positions since 1989. A wealth of experience is great in any line of work. However, it can backfire when things continue to be done the same way for decades.
The game of hockey has changed a lot since Dudley took over the Buffalo Sabres bench in 1989 as an emphasis on speed and skill has taken over the league. The teams that have not adapted to the new style of NHL have failed to keep up. Teams like the Montreal Canadiens who finished 28th in a 31 team league, unfortunately, fall into this category.
Montreal has a shortage of skill and top-line talent. They have always had a plethora of gritty, depth fourth-line forwards and third-pairing defenders but that hasn’t gotten the job done by any means.
Habs put a premium on gritty, depth players and no emphasis on skill, speed
Just look at their acquisitions since Bergevin and Dudley arrived. It started with Colby Armstrong and went on to the likes of Brandon Prust and Francis Bouillon. Not much has changed when this management team has been bringing in pro players.
In the last year or so, the Habs brought in Jordie Benn, Karl Alzner, Nicolas Deslauriers, Byron Froese, Logan Shaw, Kerby Rychel, Ales Hemsky, Mark Streit, David Schlemko, Jakub Jerabek, Brandon Davidson, Jonathon Drouin and Joe Morrow.
Would you miss any of those players, aside from Drouin, if they were no longer in Montreal? Not really. Each and every one of them is easy to replace for example Morrow who was dealt for a fifth-round pick.
It’s pretty clear that whoever is leading the pro scouting department in Montreal has a lot more misses than hits. That was one of the many hats Dudley wore during his tenure with the Canadiens. He certainly wasn’t the only one involved in the process.
However, as a Bergevin buddy, his voice certainly carried a lot of weight in the Habs management meetings and it appears to be an outdated one that’s now heading to Carolina. Hopefully ,that leads to some better decision making in Montreal’s front office.