The case for and against hiring Patrick Roy

By: Rachael Bishop

On Monday Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender Patrick Roy made it known that he is available and interested in coaching again in the National Hockey League.

His new agent Neil Glasberg tweeted that it was a “proud day for PBI Sports in announcing that we are now representing NHL HOF’er Patrick Roy with NHL coaching and management opportunities.” This revelation, of course, created much discussion in the hockey world, including on the Rod Pedersen Show, and the statement by Glasberg begs the question: Should Roy be named the permanent head coach of the Montréal Canadiens ahead of current interim head coach, Dominique Ducharme?

The possibility is certainly intriguing however Ducharme has done an admirable job with an inconsistent Canadiens team. In order to fully gage who is the better option, one must look at the case for both candidates:

The case for Roy:

• Familiarity. Roy is a Montréal legend and his return to the club with hopes of leading them to Stanley Cup number 25 would help repair his long-fractured relationship with the Les Habitants.
• No one wants to see this turn into another Dave Keon situation with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Keon, of course, was a key member of the 1967 Stanley Cup winning Maple Leafs. Unfortunately, Keon and Toronto had a feud that lasted almost 40 years after Keon, arguably the greatest Leaf of all time, had a bitter departure from the team after a falling out in 1975 with then-owner Harold Ballard.
• Keon remained subsequently estranged from Toronto until a statue of his likeness was erected on Legends Row in January of 2016.
• Canadiens owner Geoff Molson and general manager Marc Bergevin would do well to avoid this situation with Roy; perhaps the greatest goaltender in Montréal Canadiens history.
• Roy, for his part, is not just a big name. He also has had a successful coaching career, albeit more-so at the major junior level. He led the Québec Remparts of the Québec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) to a Memorial Cup in 2006, his first season as head coach.
• In addition, the Remparts have made the post-season every year that Roy has been behind the bench, with the exception of the 2019/2020 season, when the QMJHL season was cancelled before the President’s Cup playoffs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Furthermore, in Roy’s first season as an NHL head coach, he led a young, underdog Colorado Avalanche team to 112 points and a Central division title. The Avalanche would subsequently go on to lose in seven games to the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the 2014 Stanley Cup Playoffs, but Roy’s young team turned heads around the league and Roy won the Jack Adams trophy for the NHL coach of the year for his efforts that season.

Yes,  there are cons with this potential hiring. Roy is known to have a temper, and got into quite a few notable altercations with opposing coaches in is three year stint with the Colorado.

On the other hand, one can also argue that Roy, in his short-lived tenure (he resigned after the 2016 season) revolutionized the game, namely with his very early goalie-pulling antics, widely derided by the media at the time. Although recent academic studies have shown that Roy was, in fact, correct when he decided to pull his goalies with five, six minutes left in game, a trend that is now becoming increasingly more common amongst NHL coaches.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have a rookie NHL head coach, but one who is deserving of a long look in his own right.

The case for Ducharme:

• Ducharme has a proven track record at every level, including an upset over Roy’s Quebec Remparts in the second round of 2012 QMJHL President’s Cup playoffs, when his young Halifax Mooseheads team led by superstars Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin, came back from a 3-0 series deficit against Roy’s favoured Remparts to win four straight.
• Halifax won the series in seven games on Drouin’s overtime goal.
• The Mooseheads would go on to win the franchise’s only Memorial Cup the following season.
• Ducharme also coached Team Canada to a gold medal at the 2018 World Juniors Hockey Championship, just one of two gold medals the Canadians have won at the tournament in the past five years.
• Ducharme’s junior hockey teams only missed the playoffs once, and that one non-playoff year he coached a rebuilding Halifax team in 2015/2016.
• Whereas Roy has a reputation for being a bit of a loose cannon with a temper and did not seem to employ any real system on his Colorado teams, Ducharme is very systems oriented.
• He is also a players’ coach and is able to get the best out of his players, which is important for a Montréal team with a lot of young talent. He is constantly communicating with his players, and perhaps his best asset is the positive relationship he builds with each of his players, not exactly something Roy is known for. That being said, Ducharme is still tough when he needs to be.
• Jonathan Drouin. Ducharme was Drouin’s coach for Drouin’s entire junior hockey career with the Halifax Mooseheads (from 2011-2014), and Drouin was named the Canadian Hockey League player of the year after his 105-point season in 2012/2013, under Ducharme’s tutelage. If any coach knows how to get the most of the Habs polarizing star, it’s Dominique Ducharme.
• Despite being a rookie head coach, his attention to detail, his positive personal relationships with his players, and his success at the junior level means that Ducharme is the right man for the permanent head coaching job of hockey’s most successful team in a city with the most passionate and intense fan base in the NHL.

(Photo: Quebec Remparts)