The Montreal Canadiens have completely revamped their management team in the past few months.
After a brutal start to the 2021-22 season, Canadiens owner Geoff Molson fired Marc Bergevin and brought in Jeff Gorton as the team’s new executive vice president of hockey operations. That title essentially means Gorton is the top of the managerial pyramid in Montreal.
He would go on to hire Kent Hughes as the new general manager and Martin St. Louis was brought in as the team’s new head coach. They have added others in less prominent roles like Stephane Robidas as an assistant coach and Marie-Philip Poulin as a team consultant.
Canadiens add veteran executive to staff
It sounds like the Canadiens have not stopped adding to their managerial team. Even in the midst of training camp, the Habs are looking to improve their team both on and off the ice.
Gorton was on the Raw Knuckles Podcast with former Canadiens scrapper Chris Nilan, and he mentioned the team will be bringing on Gordie Clark to the managerial team. Gorton worked with Clark for years during his time with the New York Rangers.
Clark has been an executive in the NHL for over 30 years. He was named an assistant coach with the Boston Bruins in 1989 before being moved into a scouting role and quickly taking over as the team’s director of scouting.
From 1996 – 2002 Clark worked in various roles with the New York Islanders including assistant coach, assistant general manager, and director of player personnel. He moved on to work for the Rangers as a scout in 2002, but took over as director of player personnel in 2007 and filled that role for over a decade. Clark’s contract was not renewed following last season.
Of course, it takes a lot more than just a director of player personnel to develop talent at the NHL level. However, Clark was part of a Rangers managerial team that was among the best regular season teams for many years, with most of it based on the talent of homegrown players like Mats Zuccarello, Derek Stepan, Chris Kreider, Carl Hagelin, Marc Staal, JT Miller, and Henrik Lunqvist.
They continued to pump out talented young players year after year and it helped them be a legit Stanley Cup threat for several years.
There has not been an official announcement made by the team yet, so we don’t even know what Clark’s title will be. But it sure sounds like the Canadiens have continued to add veteran executives to the managerial side of things to help with the team’s rebuild.
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