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Montreal Canadiens: Five Potential Head Coach Replacements For Claude Julien

By Ken MacMillan

MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 09: Head coach of the Montreal Canadiens Claude Julien looks on from behind the bench against the Edmonton Oilers during the third period at the Bell Centre on January 9, 2020 in Montreal, Canada. The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, QC - JANUARY 09: Head coach of the Montreal Canadiens Claude Julien looks on from behind the bench against the Edmonton Oilers during the third period at the Bell Centre on January 9, 2020 in Montreal, Canada. The Edmonton Oilers defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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The Montreal Canadiens are well on their way to missing the postseason for the third consecutive year. If they decide to move on from Claude Julien, who could replace him as the Habs bench boss next year?

The Montreal Canadiens hired Michel Therrien to coach the team after a tumultuous 2011-12 campaign saw them fire Jacques Martin and replace him with Randy Cunneyworth. The English-only speaking head coach was not met with a rounding applause from the local media and owner Geoff Molson publicly stated Cunneyworth would just be there until they could find a permanent head coach that could speak French.

That permanent head coach ended up being Michel Therrien. With the team having just missed the 2012 postseason, Therrien helped guide them back to the playoffs in 2013. He did the same in 2014 and they marched to the Eastern Conference Final before losing Carey Price to injury and then the series in six games. The Habs would qualify for the 2015 postseason as well, beat the Ottawa Senators in round one, but then fell to the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The 2015-16 season got off to a great start before Price was injured again and played just 12 games all year. The Habs stumbled and finished the season with 82 points, missing the playoffs for the first time in Therrien’s tenure. With Price back the following year, the Habs were well on their way to returning to the postseason, but Therrien was fired as the Habs held a 31-19-8 record. The Habs were on pace for 99 points at that time and were in a race for a division title.

If making the playoffs three straight years, then missing because the superstar your team was built around is out all year, and then being on course to return to the playoffs falls below the benchmark for success as a coach, Claude Julien had high expectations to meet.

Or so we should have thought. Since then, Julien steered that 2016-17 team that was already in a playoff spot, into a playoff spot. They lost the first round in six games. Following that, they have missed the postseason twice and are well on their way to missing for a third consecutive year.

Marc Bergevin spoke after the trade deadline and again at the annual GMs meetings in Boca Raton and sounded confident that Julien would be back next season. Of course, he can’t really go to the media and say “we are going to fire this guy at the end of the season,” can he? I mean, that’s what Molson said about an English speaking coach, but they would not do the same thing to Julien.

Bergevin’s comments are not entirely different from the time he said he was not shopping P.K. Subban only to trade him a few weeks later. Things can change quickly in an NHL front office and there is definitely a chance at the end of the season, the management team looks around and finds a better voice for the Canadiens locker room.

Who is available to take on that role? Last week, we took a quick look at options to take over Bergevin’s job if his came available and it was very underwhelming. But Julien’s job? Well, there are some very interesting options out there if Bergevin decides missing the playoffs three years in a row is not good enough.

Let’s take a look at the top five:

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