Canadiens set to announce major management change; Gainey expected to leave

[so4real]

By The Canadian Press

MONTREAL - The Montreal Canadiens will hold a news conference to announce a major change in management Monday amid rampant rumblings that Bob Gainey is about to be replaced.
Habs president Pierre Boivin has convened a 4 p.m. news conference at the Bell Centre.
"Boivin will make an important announcement regarding the club's management," said a statement from the team Monday.
There are reports that Gainey, an icon in his playing days who has been the team's general manager since 2003, will be stepping down. A national sports network is reporting that Gainey will leave voluntarily, and be replaced on an interim basis by his assistant Pierre Gauthier.
The Hall of Fame winger was team captain from 1981 to 1989 and is considered among the best defensive forwards in the history of the game.
As a hockey executive, he received an outpouring of sympathy after losing his wife to cancer and then his daughter in a boating accident. He was given a prolonged, emotional ovation on the night two seasons ago that his No. 23 jersey was retired.
The team has been competitive under Gainey during the regular season, with a 241-176-46-7 record. The Habs have made the playoffs four of the last five years.
But Gainey has also come in for heavy criticism for a number of moves that left fans perplexed.
Some of the most controversial ones revolved around promising young goalie Carey Price.
Gainey has staunchly defended Price since he used the team's highest draft pick in a quarter-century - the No. 5 pick in 2005 - to select the British Columbia netminder.
Price had barely gotten his feet wet in the NHL when Gainey then traded the team's starting goalie, Cristobal Huet, just as the Canadiens were atop the league standings and preparing for a playoff run.
The team has never advanced beyond the second round of the playoffs under his watch.
Gainey then mockingly dismissed a question after last year's playoffs about why the slumping Price - and not Jaroslav Halak - got to start every game in a four-game sweep by the Boston Bruins.
Price struggled throughout the series, while Halak got to play only one period and didn't give up a goal.
More recently, Gainey admitted to shopping Halak around the league this year.
This was before the backup netminder went on a tear; Halak now finds himself among the league leaders in save percentage while Price is increasingly riding the bench.
The Habs entered the season after receiving a drastic facelift, with Gainey obtaining Mike Cammalleri, Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta and Jaroslav Spacek in a flurry of summertime activity. Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev and Chris Higgins were shown the door.
The team is currently in sixth place in the East, with a record of 28-26-6.
Despite that modest record, Habs fans can be frequently heard grumbling that the team's fiscal hands will be tied for years by some of the big contracts Gainey took on - especially Gomez's US$51.5 million deal, which still has four years left.