Montreal Canadiens: How To Fix The Team’s Entire Hierarchy

The National Hockey League: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Nos Canadiens. Its hundred-year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new players and new coaches. To boldly go where many teams have gone before!

Jean-Luc Picard as President, William T. Riker as VP of Hockey Operations, Spock as the logical General Manager, Benjamin Sisko as Head Coach and let’s throw in Worf and Data as his demanding assistants. Aw heck, Bones McCoy as team doctor while we’re at it.

We’re going to have to replace Michel Lacroix with George Takei, though.

At this point might as well go with fantasy to get us out of this dark and miserable cloud that is this never-ending “reset”. All the hogwash about parity and not being able to build a dynasty and the old rules aside, the Montreal Canadiens were for nearly 60 years the absolute pinnacle of hockey. Teams used their championship ambitions and ways to build a winning culture to the bone.

Then 1996 came and the Rejean Houle/Mario Tremblay era came along. Fans never forgave them for annihilating what could’ve been a powerhouse of a team. We never talk about it but it still burns deep inside.

Rather than witnessing a dustoff, we were spectators to a never ending debacle of coaches and general managers and other personnel rotate in and out of the Montreal hockey temple. Something that we weren’t used to. Quebecers are rarely open to change. They like their stability and feeling of safety around them. Seeing all of these people come in and out of their teams without any success is just unnacceptable. Granted this isn’t a 54-year cup drought like our foliage neighbors one province over, but entering year 28, the word “sting” has lost all of its meaning. This is just embarassing.

Between their first Stanley Cup in 1915 and their last in 1993, the Habs have won at least one Stanley Cup in every decade they participated. For 8 decades, including the one of their debut, the Montreal Canadiens won at least one cup.

Now we’re on the cusp of a 3rd decade without a cup. This is why fans are angry. This is why fans long for the past. This is why we’re so obsessesd with our torch.

The current version of the Montreal Canadiens is now outdated. Its revolving door of personnel consists of the wrong people in the wrong seats. The influences are erroneous and the suggestions baffling. Too many people are sitting on cushiony jobs and are taking full advantage of it.

We can complain about Drouin, Weber and Price all we want, but the Captain and crew need a strong Admiral to succeed. It starts way at the top and trickles down all the way into the AHL.

By the way, Picard was the best Captain.

General Manager

I think we’ve all had enough of “Bergy”.

For a guy who has famously said on multiple occasions that trading in the NHL is not like on PlayStation, he sure manages to wheel and deal quite a bit. A whopping 94 times to be exact in his 9 years at the helm of the team. This puts him 5th in the NHL behind Stan Bowman (115 in 12 years), David Poile (127 in 24 years), Bob Murray (137 in 13 years) and Doug Wilson (150 in 18 years).

Bergevin hasn’t been a complete failure by no means. This is someone who came in and wasn’t afraid of trading someone that wasn’t fitting in. His good trades outweigh his bad ones as the examples of the ones like Suzuki, Tatar, Danault, Anderson, Petry and Weber to name just a few.

The issue with Marc Bergevin’s current status is that he has too much weight, too much power if you will, in an antiquated structure that needs modernizing. He’s an incredible salesmen, otherwise he wouldn’t have the staff he has now for so long and being able to trade with another GM so often. Issue is however, is that he treats his players like pawns rather than human beings in a world where players are hugged and coddled more than ever.

He’s also leaned too often on his staff in order to save face, especially when it comes to drafting.

Stability is also a huge issue. Too often does this team lack a core identity. Too often are players moved at the detriment of stability. If you look at the current NHL-level roster, only Evans, Gallagher, Kotkaniemi, Lehkonen, Romanov and Price have been drafted and groomed by the organization.

Either Bergevin gives up too quickly on guys like Mikhail Sergachev or they’ve drafted too many Michael McCarron’s and Nikita Scherbak’s in the early rounds. You can’t win if you don’t draft properly and this is a plague that has hit the Habs hard for way too long.

Patrick Roy

Patrick Roy is a deity in the province of Quebec. Despite the way things ended in 1995 when he unceremoniously got traded to the Colorado Avalanche, Roy returned home when his jersey was retired in 2008 and all seems like water under the bridge now when it comes to his relationship with the fans and the organization.

Roy has had more than one offer to join an NHL club after he resigned from the Avalanche as Head Coach and Vice-President of Hockey Operations. He cited differences with upper management due to the chosing of personnel. However, despite these offers, he has since stayed with the Quebec Rempart of the QMJHL and has occupied many positions such as co-owner, general manager and head coach.

Roy was heavily rumored to be the front runner to become the GM of the Habs before Bergevin was ultimately chosen. He was then again, heavily rumored to have been the front runner to become head coach of the team but again, he apparently came 2nd and Michel Therrien was chosen.

The current situation within the Habs is perfect for him and we all know what he’s been doing. He’s not a nice person. He has an ego the size of a cathedral. He knows nothing except going all in to achieve the ultimate prize. He’s perfect.

He’s also waiting for the call to move his stuff into 7th floor at 1909 Avenue Des Canadiens de Montreal.

Trevor Timmins

With 25 years under his belt in the NHL in an administration role, Trevor Timmins comes with a whole lot of baggage and will one day become General Manager of an NHL team.

However, if the stars align themselves and the Gods of Hockey are kind to us, that won’t happen.

Trevor Timmins is not a bad administrator. Behind the scenes he does a lot of things that we don’t see on a day-to-day basis in which he’s apparently great at. Such as cap management, scouting delegation, personnel movement, etc.

The issue we have is that he is the final voice behind who the Canadiens draft. He’s given us some gems like Alexander Romanov in the 2nd round or Cayden Primeau in the 7th round or maybe even Cole Caufield. He got us Max Pacioretty and PK Subban. The jury is still in session when it comes to the 19 and 20 drafts, but the past dictates a few blunders as well. As talented as Kotkaniemi is, we’re still left to wonder if Brady Tkachuk wasn’t the right choice. Mikhail Sergachev was his choice but he was also the one that agreed that he should be traded for Jonathan Drouin. He also gave us Nikita Scherbak, Michael McCarron , Jacob De La Rose, Nathan Beaulieu and Jarred Tinordi.

While he wasn’t at the head of the scouting department yet, he gave the approval to Bob Gainey to trade Ryan McDonaugh for Scott Gomez. He pushed for Louis Leblanc ahead of Chris Kreider. He pushed for David Fischer above Claude Giroux.

The point is that we all know in the draft you win some, you lose some. However in Timmins’ case, there’s more losses than wins and it’s starting to become more than obvious.

His current title is Assistant General Manager but he’s still in charge of the draft despite Martin Lapointe moving from Director of Player Personnel to Directer of Amateur Scouting but in name only (although announced, the team website hasn’t updated his title as of yet). He changed the title but is still performing his old duties. Shane Churla, who is currently the Director of Amateur Scouting with the Florida Panthers, and actually performing those duties, had the exact same thing happen to him during his tenure in Montreal. So it seems the shifting in titles is just a vague attempt at protecting Bergevin’s good friend Trevor from the volatile attacks of the media.

There’s no clear candidate as to who can or should replace him as the duties and performances of a scout are some of the most best kept secrets in the league. One thing however is definite, upper management needs a full restructure with people doing specific jobs rather than one guy taking care of everything while the other makes trades and signs.

Dominique Ducharme

The jury is still out regarding Dominique Ducharme.

This is a guy who won a Memorial Cup in with the Halifax Mooseheads, leading Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin to a 58-6-3 record in the regular season in 2012-2013. Won silver in 2017 and gold in 2018 with Canada at the Junior Championships. He’s obviously had success at the junior level, but is he ready for prime time?

Ducharme is a good coach. He’s a motivator, he’s a tactician and he’s definitely passionate about hockey. This man eats pucks for breakfast.

This is where things get tricky though. He currently has the “interim” tag on him so he’s not guaranteed a spot for next year. Which means you gotta make a name for yourself now with what you have otherwise it’s back to the banana leagues for you.

Right now however, this is a man who recently snapped more than once at the francophone media telling them “I can’t make any moves” citing the team up against the cap. So even if he wanted to, he couldn’t play Cole Caufield and put Eric Staal in the press box.

Ducharme also favors a “run and gun” type of style which is a way of saying that he favors speed and offensive contribution from all 5 men on the ice. The issue with that is aside from Romanov and Petry, there’s no one on the back end fast and mobile enough to carry the puck and make that first pass.

There’s only 3 options in his case: A) He stays with the team B) He gets sent to Laval and takes over Bouchard C) He gets fired

Joel Bouchard

The logical choice to take over the bench duties if ever the whole operation goes belly up in Montreal. I haven’t seen someone as passionate as Joel Bouchard behind the bench since, well, Patrick Roy in Colorado.

The man is doing an outstanding job in Laval. Players want to play for him. Players want to learn from him. Jesperi Kotkaniemi had nothing but good things to say when he was sent down to Laval for a short stint in which he put his skills in full display.

Unless Alain Vignault gets fired in Philadelphia and also gets a second stint in Montreal like Therrien and Claude Julien, there is no other candidate for this job. Unless of course Ducharme magically turns things around.

How The Drive for 25 Really Begins

We’ve been talking about “The Drive For 25” for nearly 30 years now. Something’s gotta give and it starts at the very top with ownership knowing what’s best for the team and knowing what his rol within the team is.

I have sincere doubts that Geoff Molson will give up his seat as President. It is what it is. When you own a team you can do whatever you want. Would moving him aside on the business side of the team and let more experienced men run the hockey department be beneficial? Definitely. Will it happen? Probably not.

The team is in dire need of an identity. For a club that was praised beyond belief in the offseason for having a tremendous amount of depth, having one player in Brendan Gallagher being injured and completely derail the momentum is not normal.

Say what you will about Shea Weber, he’s respected by everyone in the league. Is he worth $7,857,143 for another 5 years? Absolutely not. The talks about him being exposed to the Seattle Kraken are both logical and laughable at the same time. On one end, you run the risk of losing your captain for nothing. On the other, it’s doubtful Seattle would pick up Weber and his monster contract when he’ll be entering his age 36 season in 2021-2022. However, if you had a third  hand, you can maybe make a deal with Seattle or with any other team who’s willing to eat his cap space.

Since 2018-19 Shea Weber no longer receives a signing bonus and his actual salary is $6 million which runs until next season. After that he will be making $3 million in 22-23 and then $1 million for the remainder of his contract until 2025-26. So for a team like Ottawa, Florida, New Jersey or Los Angeles who trail near the cap floor and want to add a veteran who will eat up cap space but not actual salary, he can be traded and it would have to happen this off-season before it’s too late.

Carey Price is a similar story. Out if his $84 million contract, only $14 million is in actual salary. The other $70 million is in signing bonuses he gets ever July 1st. With the expansion draft scheduled on July 21st, the Kraken wouldn’t have to pay Price’s highest signing bonus of his contract, being $11 million, and would only be responsible for 4 years of bonuses at $6.75 million, $6.5 million and $5.5 million for the final 2 years of his contract. Ultimately, they would only pay $2 million for the inaugural season, then have an average of $7,8 million per season to pay for someone who can give you a great marketing appeal to a new franchise. Compared to the $15 million the last 2 years, the $9.75 million this year and the $13 million next year that the Habs would be paying Price, it’s a steal of a deal. Yes there’s the full no movement clause that Price would have to lift in order to get exposed to the draft. However, his wife Angela is from Washington state. They got married there and spend most of the off-season there.

So you’re saying there’s a chance? Perhaps.

Once again, going back to the debate about team identity, if you were to change everything from top to bottom and hire someone like Patrick Roy as your GM and VP of Hockey Operations, the same title Marc Bergevin currently has, then you know you have someone in your hands that wants change and wants carte blanche to build a winner.  You know that Roy wouldn’t endure the roller coaster that is Carey Price or watching Shea Weber limp 20 minutes a night.

Imagine the hours of entertainment of watching Patrick Roy run a team with Joel Bouchard and Alex Burrows behind the bench.

Make it so.