GAGLine
Registered User
- Sep 17, 2007
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I think the jury is still out on that. They've drafted a lot of players who either haven't made it to the NHL yet or haven't made a significant impact at the NHL level yet.I think Gorton and Hughes have put together a pretty good collection of young players to be honest...
Or they could hire the most qualified person, regardless of their background.MSL needs a defensive system coach and a PP coach. If he doesn't like it, bye bye....
The problem then becomes politics of getting rid a Quebecois coach, which needs a Quebecois replacement.
Whether they are from Quebec or not, they want coaches who can speak French. Out of the last 10 coaches, all but one spoke French. Cunneyworth was on the only one who didn't, and he didn't last long (50 games).It's a myth.
There have been only four Québécois out of the last ten Habs coaches chosen.
Randy Cunneyworth - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
Cunneyworth's promotion caused minor controversy because at the time he only spoke English. The last full-time Canadiens coach who did not speak French at all was Al MacNeil in 1971, and he was dismissed at the conclusion of that season despite coaching the underdog team to the Stanley Cup. As a result of Cunneyworth becoming head coach, several Quebec nationalist groups called for a boycott of Molson. In response, Canadiens owner Geoff Molson promised that Cunneyworth's permanent replacement would be bilingual. Quebec Culture Minister Christine St-Pierre said she expected the Canadiens to rectify the situation as soon as possible. Cunneyworth himself had promised to learn French during the season.[3][4] In contrast to Quebec nationalists, most regular fans were not bothered by this issue, as "a common refrain heard in Montreal is that fans would be willing to support the hiring of a coach who can't speak French if it were someone like the accomplished Mike Babcock, or local hero Kirk Muller" (indeed, no such controversy occurred when Muller was interim head coach on August 13, 2020). [5] The Canadiens were also criticized for failing to defend their interim head coach against the attacks from Quebec nationalists and politicians, as it "is not Cunneyworth’s fault that he speaks only English. He’s working to change that" and he continued to be professional when this issue came up during press conferences.
So, yes, there is a very clear bias toward French-speaking coaches and GMs.