Montreal Canadiens: Three Potential General Manager Replacements For Marc Bergevin
3. Serge Beausoleil
This would be a pretty bold move to be sure. Beausoleil has been at the helm of the Rimouski Oceanic as their head coach since the 2011-12 season. That is one year longer than Bergevin has been the general manager of the Montreal Canadiens.
He made it all the way to the QMJHL finals his first year behind the bench and due to his success, he added general manager to his job description for the start of the 2014-15 season. His inaugural season as head coach went well, but his first year as head coach/general manager went even better as the Oceanic won the QMJHL championship.
Beausoleil bolstered the Oceanic lineup by trading future picks for Chris Clapperton at the start of the year and he was one of the team’s top scorers. He also made a bold move by acquiring goaltender Louis-Philip Guindon, though incumbent Phillipe Desrosiers was a recent second round draft pick. Desrosiers struggled a bit that year and Guindon ended up starting more playoff games en route to the QMJHL championship.
A lot of Junior teams fall off the map after going on a deep run because they are built around veteran players who are too old for Junior the following year. The Oceanic managed 79 points in 68 games the following year and started the postseason with home ice advantage, though they sold off a couple of key veterans at the trade deadline, as Beausoleil was wise enough to know his team wasn’t going deep again.
The 2016-17 season was the only year the team did not have a good record, and it resulted in them drafting Alexis Lafreniere first overall in the QMJHL Draft. Now, there was a little bit of luck involved as the Oceanic finished third last in the standings but they won the lottery and wisely selected Lafreniere.
Since then, the Oceanic has been a top team in the league for three consecutive seasons. Sure, it helps to have a generational player like Lafreniere, but even in Juniors, one player can not do it alone. John Tavares was the biggest prospect in many years when he was taken by the Oshawa Generals, but they ended up trading him in his third season because they didn’t have a contender built around him.
Picking Lafreniere first was an easy decision, but Beausoleil traded a later first round pick to the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles for goaltender Colten Ellis. He has turned out to be one of the league’s best goalies the past three years and was drafted in the third round of the NHL Draft by the St. Louis Blues last June.
The Oceanic finished third in the QMJHL standings in 2017-18 but were knocked out in the opening round. They finished fifth in the overall standings last season but marched to the semi-finals before losing to a powerhouse Rouyn-Noranda Huskies team that won the QMJHL championship and the Memorial Cup.
This season, the Oceanic are once again in the running for a QMJHL title. Beausoleil acquired Cedric Pare in 2018 for the 15th overall pick in the draft and added Dmitri Zavgorodny at the 2017 CHL Import Draft. Those two have combined with Lafreniere to form the most dangerous line in Junior hockey right now.
Jumping straight from the QMJHL to the helm of the Habs would be a big leap for anyone. Beausoleil has nine years experience as head coach and six years as the general manager. He has helped develop Lafreniere and has the Oceanic in the mix for a championship for the third consecutive season. Junior teams usually plummet in the standings after one, maybe two good years, but Rimouski keeps hanging around at the top and they can thank Beausoleil for that longevity.