With the Canadiens’ season of misery, something had to be done, and that’s exactly what Geoff Molson chose to do.
Thus, the owner of the club decided to fire Marc Bergevin on Sunday, but it is a decision that has been trotting in his head for a little while now.
“I made this decision because it was necessary,” he explained during a much awaited press briefing on Monday morning in Brossard. Our start to the season is unacceptable and something had to be done to change this course. I had no other option but to make these changes in order to improve the structure of our hockey operations. There, we turn the page. ”
The National Hockey League, like all other leagues, is a results league, and at the end of the day, it was the Canadiens’ poor results this season that got the better of Bergevin after 10 seasons.
Usually, an executive who heads a finalist team can expect a contract extension or, at the very least, a vote of confidence. But the owner admitted that in addition to the magical spring of 2021, the club’s recent, often disappointing results made him hesitate when the issue of a new contract for Bergevin came up again in the summer. .
“I wanted to reflect during the last year of Marc’s contract, he added, to really see how it was going to go. Of course we started the season badly; at first I was hopeful it would change, but it continued to go wrong for a longer period of time than I expected. So recently I made the decision to start looking for replacements.
“Marc and I started to have discussions together for a potential extension last year. It took longer than expected. After we managed to play in the final, we still had discussions together. I thought maybe it was better to wait before thinking about a contract extension. I had a lot of thought to do. ”
According to Geoff Molson, the highly controversial selection of Logan Mailloux in the last draft had no impact on the decision to dismiss Marc Bergevin.
“No, not at all… There are several reasons for my decision, but this situation has led to something positive with the aid program that we have created. We are going to develop a program that will be there in the long term. We turned a difficult situation into a positive one. ”
Obviously, the owner was no happier with the work of Trevor Timmins, who was also sidelined on Sunday.
“Trevor dedicated all his efforts to the Canadiens… He had some good shots and some not so good. But for me it was very important to make this decision. Over the years we’ve had two third picks in total, and today neither of them are with the squad. ”
In the end, we understand that the owner expected much more than 6 wins in 23 games. Ultimately, that is why the hunt for a new CEO is on. “We have a much better team than the results indicate,” added Geoff Molson.