After the Montreal Canadiens made their improbable run to the 2021 Stanley Cup final just a few short months ago, the team has had a disastrous start to the 2021-22 regular season. Things came to a head this week with the dismissal of GM Marc Bergevin along with several key members of the club’s senior staff, and the announcement of Melrose, Mass. native Jeff Gorton as Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations.
At 6-17-2-4, the Habs are just above the moribund Ottawa Senators in the basement of the NHL’s Atlantic Division. This is a significant move to not only shake things up in a stagnant organization, but to infuse new blood in the form of a proven hockey executive, who has improved every situation in front offices of the Boston Bruins and New York Rangers.
Now, Gorton will have an opportunity to steer the helm of the NHL’s most successful franchise with 24 Stanley Cup championships, but none since 1993. Although 2021 was a Cinderella run for Bergevin’s Canadiens, the relationship between the former NHL defenseman and ownership had begun to show outside signs of fraying. An aging core, questionable trades and drafting have all conspired to put Montreal into a situation where the longer-term outlook did not reflect the positives and good will from making it to the final round of the playoffs.
Gorton isn’t a miracle worker, but his hiring shows that the Molson family is serious about getting the Canadiens back on the path of contention and long-term viability.
The immediate challenges
Once Montreal lost the services of goaltender Carey Price, who has been away from the team dealing with personal challenges, including a month spent in the NHL’s player assistance program for substance abuse-related care, their chances of being competitive out of the gate in the new season went down dramatically. Team captain Shea Weber is also out with a long-term injury that is so severe that Bergevin openly told the media that the defenseman may never play another game again. Removing those two key veteran components, even if both players are on the wrong side of 30 and statistically on the decline, has had a huge impact on Montreal’s poor start. Weber has not retired, and is currently on long-term injured reserve.
Aside from having to assess the current hockey operations staff in Montreal he’s inheriting, Gorton will need to do a rapid and comprehensive review of the organization to develop a plan of action for his first steps. He’ll need to find a bilingual GM who can be the face of the franchise, but he is running the show on the operations side of things. He will also prioritize finding the right head coach to steer the ship into some rough waters at the beginning of the tenure.
Head coach Dominic Ducharme is not an option over the long term, but given the current dysfunctional situation, chances are, he stays for now. The coach can provide the key day-to-day continuity needed for Gorton to properly assess the situation and develop his blue print to get the Canadiens back on track. The cynics would also say that keeping him in place also guarantees that the team will stay down in the standings, increasing their chances of winning the Shane Wright lottery in July, when the 2022 NHL Entry Draft will be held in Montreal. Make no mistake- Ducharme’s days are numbered, but how long he remains on board will be an interesting glimpse into Gorton’s strategic vision and how he prioritizes the many issues facing him in his new position.
The good news is that Gorton has a pair of young forwards to build around in Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. Suzuki is signed through 2030 at nearly $8 million per year, but he’s going to be worth that as other salaries around the league continue to escalate and the 22-year-old enters his prime years. Caufield is signed through 2023 on an entry-level deal that pays him a $881k base rate, but like Suzuki, his next contract will be a significant one.
The bad news, and there is more of it than good- is that the Canadiens have too much money tied up in aging veterans who are underperforming. This will be Gorton’s toughest task, as the cap-strapped Canadiens won’t likely have many takers for contracts like the one Jeff Petry is on. Bergevin extended the 33-year-old a year ago after Petry was a model of consistency in his previous $5.5M deal, but his 2 helpers and -4 rating in 25 games is not only a horrific return on investment on his $6.2 million cap hit, but also makes him virtually untradeable without retaining significant salary (Petry’s modified no-trade consists of a 15-team list of teams he will not report to). That’s an albatross contract and one Gorton may have to bite the bullet on in hopes that Petry can get back to the form that made him one of the team’s most reliable defenders since he came over from Edmonton seven years ago.
Price carries a $10.5 million cap hit through 2026, and is still away from the team. His situation is a complicated one, and will require some of the most delicate maneuvering of Gorton’s career. Between the goaltender and Weber, the Canadiens have more than $18 million per season tied up in those two. It isn’t hurting them right now, but with the team up against the NHL’s contract limit with 47 out 50 spots taken up, this is one more factor that limit’s the new hockey operations chief’s freedom of maneuver.
Players like defenseman Ben Chiarot, who is a pending unrestricted free agent this summer, is sure to be moved by the trade deadline for cap relief and future assets. Gorton could elect to move on from Tyler Toffoli, who at 29 carries a reasonable $4.2 million hit for what he does and is a proven veteran forward.
All in all, there are a lot of areas to address, but if the past is any indication, Gorton has the experience to tackle the job.
Legacy of excellence
After playing hockey at Bridgewater State College, Gorton joined the Bruins organization first in the public relations department in 1992, and moving to the scouting department where he leveraged his computer skills and acumen into building the B’s first digital player database in 1994. That served as a springboard for him to steadily rise in the organization, ultimately becoming assistant GM to Mike O’Connell (Cohasset, Mass.) in 2001. When O’Connell was relieved of his duties in the spring of 2006, Gorton was interim GM until Peter Chiarelli took over after the draft and start of free agency.
By the end of 2007, Gorton was out in Boston, but quickly landed with the Rangers, where he spent one season as an amateur scout before Glen Sather realized how much more his new hire could do for his club. From director of player personnel, to assistant general manager, to eventually becoming Sather’s successor as GM of the Rangers, Gorton had a significant influence. His most notable trades brought in Mika Zibanejad and Norris Trophy winner Adam Fox. Drafting Alexis Lafreniere first overall in 2020 was a no-brainer, but getting current Providence College star forward Brett Berard (East Greenwich, R.I.) at 134th might be one of Gorton’s finest draft decisions during his Rangers tenure.
In short, Gorton has had a positive influence in his prior stints as an executive, and has the credentials to prove it. This is the biggest reason why team president Geoff Molson had to move quickly to secure his services this year, even if it meant more disarray for the Montreal franchise in the short term. Gorton was not going to be on the market much longer, and he couldn’t risk a bidding war with another team in the offseason.
What Gorton in Montreal means to the NHL
As the new EVP assembles his team of staff and advisers around him, the Canadiens will be open for business.
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Gorton has the reputation for being a deep, analytical thinker. His first priority will be to develop comprehensive reviews of his players through advanced statistical analysis and determining who is part of the solution going forward.
He’ll look to shed the unnecessary contracts and cut loose the middle tier veterans who are on expiring deals, likely replacing them with inexperienced, but skilled younger talent on cost-effective rookie contracts like Jan Mysak.
On the draft front, Gorton has seven picks in the first four rounds. Though his predecessor traded a first-rounder to Arizona in the Christian Dvorak trade before the start of the new season, the conditions on it mean that Gorton and his scouts get to keep the higher of two first-round picks the Canadiens possess. They received Carolina’s first-round selection in 2022 as compensation for the Hurricanes signing Jesper Kotkaniemi to a summer offer sheet. The later of the two picks in 2022 will transfer to Arizona to complete the Dvorak deal, so that is sure to be the Carolina selection.
Gorton won the draft lottery in 2019 with Lafreniere, so if lightning strikes twice and the Canadiens are able to come away with Wright with the top selection, it would be the biggest stroke of fortune of Gorton’s career, and he’s had a few of those. Wright is a generational-type franchise player who will be an NHL superstar one day. Even if the Habs don’t win the lottery, Gorton and his staff will have myriad options in a deep, talented forward-heavy draft with a lot of star power at the top: Russian winger Ivan Miroshnichenko, Matthew Savoie, Connor Geekie and Logan Cooley could all be very nice consolation prizes for those teams who don’t win the Wright sweepstakes.
Factor in Montreal being the host city for the 2022 draft, and it is all setting up for Gorton and the Canadiens to make a big splash in July in what will likely be an electric atmosphere.
The real impact Gorton makes on the league won’t be immediately evident, but once he’s able to bring in the top people he trusts most next season and beyond, we’ll see things take shape. With his detail-oriented approach, keen hockey mind and a penchant for bold action to take the steps necessary to take it down and build it back up, Gorton is the right man for the job.
He’s got the experience and track record to prove it.
