Montreal Canadiens: The Only Three General Manager Candidates That Make Any Sense

Martin Madden

While hiring a young up and comer like Thibault or Darche who have played for the Canadiens does make sense, there is some risk hiring someone who doesn’t have a lot of, or any, experience in NHL front offices.

Sure, Gorton is there to guide the way and help out and take some heat off the general manager, but there are no guarantees that Darche or Thibault can handle the role until they do it.

That’s why hiring a more veteran executive like Martin Madden Jr. makes a lot of sense as well. He has been working in Anaheim with the Ducks since 2008. His father, Martin Madden Sr. was the Director of Scouting and then general manager of the Quebec Nordiques and served as assistant general manager of the Canadiens in the early 2000’s for two seasons.

Madden Jr. is the Assistant General Manager of the Ducks and has been running their draft for many years, and has done a terrific job.

The Canadiens didn’t just fire Bergevin, they also got rid of Trevor Timmins who ran the NHL Draft for the Canadiens. Madden would be the ideal candidate to take over those duties for the Habs.

While running the Ducks drafts, Madden has routinely grabbed two or more future NHLers every year. Just take a quick look at the players he drafted who became regular contributors and what round he took them in:

2009: Kyle Palmieri (1), Sami Vatanen (4)

2010: Cam Fowler (1), Devante Smith-Pelley (2), Chris Wagner (5)

2011: Rickard Rakell (1), John Gibson (2), William Karlsson (2), Josh Manson (6)

2012: Hampus Lindholm (1), Frederik Andersen (3)

2013: Shea Theodore (1) (one spot after Michael McCarron….)

2014: Nick Ritchie (1), Marcus Pettersson (2), Brandon Montour (2), Ondrej Kase (7)

2015: Jason Larsson (1), Troy Terry (5)

2016: Max Jones (1), Sam Steel (1)

2017: Max Comtois (2)

It gets a little more difficult to judge the most recent drafts, but there is a pretty clear trend of Madden delivering multiple solid NHL players to the Ducks every single year. Even those recent drafts that are difficult to judge have delivered Trevor Zegras and Jamie Drysdale who already look terrific.

The Habs drafts over those years with Timmins? Not so good.

Madden has more experience than any of the other candidates and his specialty is the draft. This would work perfect with Gorton who did a great job adding prospects and picks and signing the right free agents while with the Rangers, but his draft record isn’t terrific.

With both Bergevin and Timmins out, there is no question the tandem that makes the most sense to replace them is Gorton and Madden.