Two Former Canadiens Coaches Fired

The Montreal Canadiens have already fired their general manager and his assistant early in the 2021-22 season. A difficult start really left team owner Geoff Molson no choice but to make a move.

Jeff Gorton was brought in as the team’s new Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations and he will oversee the new search for a general manager. He will take his time to find the right person for the job and said it will likely be after Christmas before he makes a decision.

He already made a decision on his head coach. Dominique Ducharme will be in place until the end of the season at the very least.

A couple of former Canadiens coaches found out yesterday that they would not be so fortunate. Alain Vigneault was the head coach of the Philadelphia Flyers and Michel Therrien was his assistant. Both were let go from the organization yesterday after a difficult stretch of hockey for the team.

The Flyers are in a very tough division as all eight teams in the Metropolitan Division are legitimate  playoff contenders. The Flyers obviously expected to be one of the teams in the playoff mix as they chose to change coaching staffs after an 8-10-4 start to the season.

Therrien was initially the Habs head coach from 2000-03 and then had another stint with the organization from 2012-17. He guided the team to an Eastern Conference Final in 2014 and a 50 win regular season the following year.

Vigneault was the Canadiens head coach from 1997-2001. They were some of the least memorable seasons in Habs history (before this season) with Mark Recchi leading the team in scoring one year with 47 points and Martin Rucinsky leading the way the following year with 49. He was fired after 20 games of the 2000-01 season and replaced by Therrien.