Only 23 games removed from his team making the Stanley Cup finals, Marc Bergevin now finds himself without a job. The Montreal Canadiens announced that they were relieving Bergevin of his duties as GM following the team’s 6-15-2 start to the season.
The announcement comes 24 hours after assistant GM Scott Mellanby announced his resignation. Bergevin was in the final year of his contract which he signed in 2015. Originally named GM of the Canadiens in May of 2012, Montreal made the playoffs in all but 3 seasons during Bergevin’s time at the helm.
In addition to the Bergevin firing, Montreal also let go assistant GM Trevor Timmins, and SVP of communications and affairs Paul Wilson. In their place Jeff Gorton was hired as Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations to help conduct the search for the next GM. Gorton previously spent time as GM of the New York Rangers from 2015-2021 but was let go in the wake of the Tom Wilson incident where management and ownership failed to see eye to eye with how to best handle the matter.
In a statement posted to the Canadiens website Bergevin wrote “Saying farewell to an organization like the Montreal Canadiens is not an easy thing to do. I want to leave the organization in the same way I came in: with a lot of pride.If there is one word that comes to mind right now, it is “thanks.””
The Canadiens released a statement of their own where they indicated that bilingualism would once again be one of the top priorities when conducting their search for a new GM: “A process to recruit, as soon as possible, the team’s next general manager is under way…While the next general manager will bring significant hockey expertise to the organization, an additional criterion of that person’s role will be to communicate with fans in both French and English.”
Montreal currently sits in 7th in the Atlantic and 29th overall in league standings. The Canadiens are next in action Monday against the Vancouver Canucks.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner