The Call of the Wilde for the night of Friday, Nov. 26, is not concerned about the Wilde Horses or Wilde Goats in yet another lifeless game for the Canadiens this season.
Instead, it is an examination of the future of the general manager and head coach.
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It’s a popular sentiment these days among fans and some media as well to fire the general manager, Marc Bergevin, and head coach, Dominique Ducharme. Frustration is high, so it is a natural wish. This season, the Canadiens have the worst record after 21 games that they have had in their 112-year history.
No wonder people want some heads to roll. Some are suggesting that president, Geoff Molson, has gone completely AWOL without the courage to deal with this.
Here’s the thing, though. Timing is everything, and there is a logical timetable to these events.
Let’s start with the head coach, where the firing of Ducharme this year is non-sensical. The Canadiens are already eliminated from the playoffs this season. The Habs would have to have a record in the last 60 games of 43-17 to reach 98 points. The best team in the league is not doing 43-17 likely. Surely, the Canadiens are not. They are not making the playoffs.
Therefore, it is not wise at all to start a new head coach during this season that is already lost. He would begin his tenure with three-quarters of a season that didn’t even matter. The organization would pay another coach as well for absolutely nothing in terms of important games. The club would also have fewer coaches in the prospect pool to choose from, considering coaches are in the middle of their season right now doing their jobs.
It only makes sense that Ducharme takes this the rest of the season. There is no motivation whatsoever for a new head coach at this time. Let Ducharme finish this season, and then it is highly likely that the evaluations will be done then. At a present pace of 48 points in his first full season, surely, the president would look for someone else to be behind the bench.
Even if this is not Ducharme’s fault, at 48 points, you haven’t earned the benefit of the doubt.
That brings us to the timing of the change of the other top personnel. While the head coach has to stay until the end of the season because there are no important games left this year, the work of the GM is ongoing in a season like this, and the work begins for next year right now.
The plan must be that the rebuild starts immediately. That means unrestricted free agents like Ben Chiarot should already be on the market. The type of roster decision that the GM makes should be more for the future than right now.
For example, young players who need ice time should be getting it. Veterans who are not a part of next season should already be on new teams, or soon to be. Alexander Romanov should be playing a lot. Cedric Paquette shouldn’t be playing at all. The rest of this season is about preparing for the next one.
All of this work begins at this moment, so if Molson wants to relieve Bergevin of his posting, that should be done as soon as now. Bergevin can’t be responsible for the trading deadline. He can’t be responsible for the draft. He can’t be responsible for the roster right now. If he is done, then logic dictates that he is done now.
It makes you wonder if Bergevin’s time is not up because there is extremely important work for the GM this year to do. He has to get rid of any player who is not a part of a future two or three years out. He has to get a player for Jordan Harris, if he has decided to not be involved in Montreal’s organization.
There is a stunning amount of work for the GM to do — and if he is not next year’s GM, then he shouldn’t be GM now.
Perhaps, even though Bergevin’s contract ends this season, Molson still has faith in him.
Personally, the inability to value puck moving defenders for so many years is my bridge too far. David Savard and Karl Alzner as long term signings showed his preference for stay-at-home defenders. He never got a replacement for his best puck-moving defender Andrei Markov. Head Scout Trevor Timmins got him a good puck-moving defenceman, the youngest winner of the defender of the year in the OHL, Mikhael Sergachev, so Bergevin could promptly trade him away.
Bergevin has never been in the sweepstakes for a blue line puck-mover. He just does not value them. He values who he was as a defender. Bergevin had a long and successful career where he took care of his own end and offered absolutely nothing at the other end of the ice — just like he likes them.
This is never going to change. He will continue to make this blunder. Five years for Alzner; four years for Savard. As much as Bergevin does make good trades, and he does well in contract negotiations, he cannot build a team because he does not value this absolutely vital defender.
If Molson disagrees with me, then so be it. That is my right to have my opinion, and it is his right to have his opinion. He is the man who makes the call. I’m just a sports writer who makes my own call.
My call is to relieve Bergevin of his duties now. He’s had a decade. That’s long enough. Allow someone else to try this now.
If you can’t do it during the club’s worst start after 21 games in 112 years, when can you do it?
Brian Wilde, a Montreal-based sports writer, brings you Call of the Wilde on globalnews.ca after each Canadiens game.
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