What the Puck: Maybe a New President Could Fix the Shaky Canadiens

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Since we all need a little levity, here’s a Montreal Canadiens joke.

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Experts and fans keep saying that Habs supporters just won’t accept a rebuild because that would mean a couple of years of losses. That is a joke.

The Canadiens are not rebuilding and never have been. However, they continue to lose. That is also a joke.

It really is ridiculous. Aside from a magical run to the Stanley Cup final in the midst of a pandemic, our beloved hockey team hasn’t been a great contender for at least three decades. Through those years of trouble, no owner or GM has had the guts to take the initiative and try to rebuild. Of course, a rebuild doesn’t always work. But at least it’s a plan.

Things are so bad that I am willing to take any plan right now. Come up with an idea and try to sell it to us. But what I’m not willing to put up with is this utter total paralysis in the Groupe CH management suites.

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The only guy who works overtime is public relations spinmeister Paul Wilson, who stays up nights trying to sell this team train wreck as a hopeful job in progress. It is not. It’s just a train wreck.

There is no schedule until the team’s star goalkeeper returns to the ice after dealing with substance use issues. Carey Price is paid $ 10.5 million a year and makes that dough for four more seasons after this. His personal troubles aside, there are also his troubles on the ice, as he hasn’t been very good in recent years, with the notable exception of last spring’s playoffs.

Even if he plays a season or two more, clearly a succession plan is needed sooner rather than later. However, the Habs don’t appear to have a single viable candidate in the organization, unless they count down to seventh-round pick Cayden Primeau. Did I mention the lack of a plan?

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When it comes to terrible contracts, there is the case of Jeff Petry. He signed a four-year, $ 25 million deal last fall and that looks like a real albatross right now. Petry is playing the worst D-man on the team and the team is on the hook for $ 6.25 per season for three seasons after this.

Petry had a good weekend. On Saturday night, he pushed Detroit’s Dylan Larkin to Habs goalie Jake Allen and now Allen is out indefinitely with an apparent concussion. Then on Sunday at Beantown, he was in the penalty area when the Bruins’ comeback began, with Charlie McAvoy tying the score at 2-2. He then tried to clear the puck in front of goalie Samuel Montembeault and the puck shot out of Charlie Coyle’s helmet and into the back of the net. It was the perfect metaphor for the Petry season.

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Perhaps the worst contract ever signed by GM Marc Bergevin, and that’s saying something! – It’s the one he wrapped as a gift for Brendan Gallagher. They pay him $ 6.5 million in the first six-year season. $ 39 million settlement. We all love Gally and no one has shown more determination in recent years. But it is a shadow of what it was before. This contract is so bad that it makes Gallagher untradeable.

This season is a toast. So it’s time for the president and GM to make some tough but smart decisions. The problem is, the president has been hiding in his corner office for two years away from media scrutiny and the general manager seems to have one foot out of the door.

Why hasn’t Geoff Molson rehire Bergevin, whose contract ends at the end of the season? It would be nice if the boss could explain this. Here’s an even better question. Is Molson the best executive to be president of the third most lucrative hockey franchise in the world?

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What was your experience prior to becoming president of the Canadiens that made you the ideal candidate? Did Molson do an exhaustive job search in the hockey world and come to the conclusion that no one could do this pressure cooker job better than him?

One more question. Is there an executive governance system that is monitoring Molson’s performance? Are your brothers Andrew and Justin, also partners in the consortium, who oversee your brother’s handling of the Habs?

In a speech to the Canadian Club in Montreal in 2019, Geoff Molson noted that 11 of the 24 Stanley Cups came when the team was owned by the Molson family or the Molson Brewery. When Geoff Molson created a consortium to buy the Habs from George Gillett in 2009, clearly the idea was that Molson would continue this historic family legacy with the team. 12 years later, that hasn’t happened and it doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime soon.

Maybe it’s time for Geoff Molson to think not of himself, but of the team, and its millions of fans, and find a new president to revive that historic legacy.

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