Montreal Canadiens: Dominique Ducharme Signed as Head Coach for Three Years
The Montreal Canadiens just announced that Dominique Ducharme will now serve as head coach for the following three years (2021-22 to 2023-24).
He had been promoted from assistant coach to interim head coach in February after the Montreal Canadiens fired ex-coach Claude Julien.
His contract will be worth an average of $1.7 million per season.
Dominique Ducharme’s new three-year deal believed to be worth $1.7 M per season on average. Fair deal for a first-time, full time NHL head coach.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) July 13, 2021
While Ducharme had some difficulty settling in at first, and it was mostly shown by the team’s inconsistency and inability to win consecutive games, he still managed to take the team to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, and once that started, it was a whole different story.
He showed the team’s ability to adapt to their opponents, to really shut down their top scorers, and to use their depth to score, things they had struggled to do in the regular season. Though, they still need to improve their scoring.
However, he and the team had an incredible playoff run, even making it to the Final where they faced the Tampa Bay Lightning, but they ultimately fell short and lost the series in five games.
The team still has a lot to learn from this playoff run, but they also learned a lot, not only about their players and their range of skills but that Ducharme definitely deserves a chance to coach this team in a regular season and see how far he can take them.
There is no doubt the Canadiens will be having some expectations next season after getting to the Final this season. Ultimately, every team’s end goal is to win the Stanley Cup, whether a team changes its staff, rebuilds, or only changes some players in their lineup, that is the ultimate goal everyone works towards.
Ducharme displayed the ability to coach this team through the playoffs and to the final, and next season will be interesting. Though sometimes his lineup choices can be questionable, he managed to take his team to the Final and deserves the contract he got.
If he can truly settle in and keep doing what he did this postseason, he could possibly lead them to what could be their 25th Stanley Cup.
It’s also general manager Marc Bergevin’s last year on his contract, and we have to expect that he will be doing his possible to build the strongest Canadiens team we have seen in the past nine years.
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Ducharme getting a three-year contract is only the first news of this offseason, and many other signings and trades will be just as crucial to the team.