Montreal Needs a GM, Who’s Getting the Gig? By: Josh Caul

Photo cred- NHL.com

After much speculation and nudging from fans, the Montreal Canadiens completely cleaned the front house in November, ending a 10-year run for GM Marc Bergevin. Habs fans online brought forth elation only paralleled by their conference win and ticket to the Stanley cup to close the 20-21 season. While fans cheered, the question remained “Now what? Or better yet, who?”

We have a few variables to the new GM equation that can expose the potential candidates. Primarily, they hired a unilingual English Jeff Gordon as the Executive Vice-President of Hockey Operations. Now, I will not get into the language debate – I find that is best serviced in the comments section of articles, but I digress. This hire does well to cull the heard of potential hires as they are indicating two distinct things: the new GM will be fluently French speaking, and the new GM will likely be new to an NHL GM role as the former Ranger’s GM is there to help develop the talent.

So, who does that leave as candidates? Sorry Jim Benning, you’re out. There are two key people that come to mind: Danny Boy Briere and Patrick Roy, and I think I know the answer.

Danny is a stud in Montreal, and a reasonably educated businessman, floating a Wharton MBA. He knows hockey, he knows business, he knows Montreal and most importantly, he is level-headed and leaves bridges intact. Roy on the other hand, he’s a bit of an emotional wildcard (ah-hum, coaching for the Avs and almost pulling the glass down). Roy is passionate, aggressive and inspirational. That does fit well with playing and coaching, however, an astute businessperson is methodical, informed and reflective. Coupling these significant character differences with the fact that Roy is lobbying for the job in the media, I think it is safe to say that Roy is out, leaving, in this analyst’s view, Daniel Briere as the incumbent General Manager of the Montreal Canadians.

-Josh Caul- Dusty Beauts/ Olde City Sports Network