Announcing to a coach that he is being removed from his position is probably the most complex task that a general manager must perform. Especially when he was assured that he was going to finish the season. This is the difficult decision Jeff Gorton and Kent Hughes had to make yesterday afternoon.
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“Initially, my intention was to keep Dominique until the end of the season. Then, from the way we were playing and because of the direction the season was going, we felt that the situation was deteriorating, ”explained Gorton during this press briefing.
Like everyone else, the two management members found that the hearts of several players weren’t there anymore. The sickles following one another at an alarming rate convinced them that it was necessary to act now. Especially since we are far from having reached the home stretch of this season which has seemed endless for quite a while now.
“There are 37 games left in the season. Education and development must continue. Recently, it was agreed that Dominique would not be back next year. So, faced with the situation, we said to ourselves that it was better to take the greatest possible advantage of the rest of the season, analyzed the vice-president of hockey operations. So on Tuesday, we agreed it was time to make a change. »
Moreover, it appears that the perch had already been extended to Martin St-Louis, just to sound out his interest in the position. All that remained was to finalize the agreement.
“Over the past few weeks it had become clear that the team needed a spark. We spoke to Martin for the first time about ten days ago,” Gorton said.
Little support for Ducharme
Although we are delighted with the hiring of St-Louis, we can only be sorry that Dominique Ducharme was left to fend for himself.
In addition to having to negotiate this season through unsustainable meanders and appearing with an unprecedented frequency, the Joliettain has obtained nothing, in terms of a helping hand, from his bosses.
Since Gorton’s hiring at the end of November, Kale Clague and Rem Pitlick, both claimed on waivers, have been the only players added to the roster.
“We definitely could have done more,” Gorton said. But I arrived a few months ago. I tried to put together a management team. When I took over, the team didn’t have many wins. I had to get to know the players. »
The fact that it took another month and a half before Hughes was hired as general manager no doubt contributed to the slowness with which attempts were made to bring this big liner to the surface.
“We could have done more to give Dominique a better chance in the short term,” Hughes also said. But our goal is to build a team that can be successful in the long term. This is the first of several changes to come. »
Experienced assistants
These next changes will take place on the ice since the general manager has confirmed that all the assistant coaches in place will remain there until the end of the season.
“Then it will be Martin’s decision,” Hughes argued.
St-Louis will therefore be able to benefit from the vast experience of a man like Luke Richardson to help him in the transition to his new life.
“I played with Luke in Tampa. He is the example of the perfect teammate. He’s a very good hockey guy. Just like Alex [Burrows] and Trevor [Letowski), a-t-il vanté. Je ne viens pas ici pour changer les choses du jour au lendemain. Je ne les connais pas comme entraîneur. Je veux observer comment ils opèrent, leur philosophie. »
« Je veux des gars capables de me challenger. Je ne suis pas un dictateur. Je suis un gars très ouvert. J’ai toujours été un gars d’équipe et j’ai très hâte de travailler avec ces gars-là », a-t-il ajouté.
L’association entre St-Louis et Richardson pourrait être de très courte durée. L’Ontarien de 52 ans sera possiblement très recherché au cours de l’été.
Il en est à sa neuvième saison dans le poste d’entraîneur adjoint d’une équipe de la LNH. Entre ses séjours à Ottawa et Montréal, il a dirigé les Senators de Binghamton, dans la Ligue américaine, pendant quatre saisons.