Less than a year after Dominique Ducharme led the Montreal Canadiens on an improbable run to the Stanley Cup Final, the team has dismissed their head coach.
The Canadiens will name Ducharme's replacement later Wednesday and are retaining all of their assistant coaches for the time being.
Montreal sits last in the NHL standings with an 8-30-7 record in 2021-22. The Habs went 23-46-14 in 83 regular-season games under Ducharme and 13-6 in the playoffs.
The club has also overhauled its front office since its Cup Final appearance. Montreal fired former general manager Marc Bergevin and tabbed ex-New York Rangers GM Jeff Gorton as executive vice president of hockey operations in November. The Canadiens then hired former player agent Kent Hughes as GM in January.
Montreal has played without goaltender Carey Price and captain Shea Weber for the duration of the campaign, while numerous others have also missed time.
The Canadiens brought Ducharme on as an assistant coach in 2018 and promoted him to the lead job upon firing Claude Julien last February. Ducharme served as interim head coach until the squad formally removed that tag on July 13.
The 48-year-old signed a three-year extension with Montreal on the same day.
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