The Montreal Canadiens Just Fired Head Coach Dominique Ducharme
The next head coach will be announced Wednesday.
There are a lot of changes happening with the Montreal Canadiens. General Manager Kent Hughes announced on February 9 that Habs Head Coach Dominique Ducharme was officially relieved of his duties.
Hughes joined the Montreal Canadiens as general manager on January 18.
Dominique Ducharme has been relieved of his head coaching duties.https://www.nhl.com/canadiens/news/dominique-ducharme-relieved-of-his-duties-as-head-coach-of-the-montreal-canadiens/c-330631332?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=post&utm_campaign=CHCcontent&utm_content=EN-0209-Ducharme\u00a0\u2026— Canadiens Montr\u00e9al (@Canadiens Montr\u00e9al) 1644436073
"We would like to sincerely thank Dominique for his work and contributions to the Montreal Canadiens organization. At this point in the season, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to make a change," Hughes said in a statement released by the NHL.
Dominique Ducharme, who played hockey professionally from 1995 to 2002, officially joined the Canadiens' roster of coaching staff on April 17, 2018. Ducharme was then promoted to head coach on February 24, 2021, per the NHL website.
During his time as head coach of the Montreal Canadiens, Dominique led the team to its very first Stanley Cup appearance in nearly 30 years.
Despite this successful move, the team has been facing many challenges, as Kent Hughes pointed out only a day after being hired.
"The team's not where we had hoped it would be, or the Canadiens had hoped it would be, at this point in time. My opinion is, some of that is circumstance. But there's no question that there need to be changes," Hughes said. And it seems as if Ducharme's firing was one of them.
As for Alex Burrows, Éric Gravel, Mario Leblanc, Trevor Letowski, Éric Raymond and Luke Richardson, their status as assistant coaches "remains unchanged," according to the February 9 statement.
The Montreal Canadiens are expected to name a new head coach later Wednesday.