League-worst Montreal Canadiens fire coach Dominique Ducharme

The Montreal Canadiens have fired head coach Dominique Ducharme, the team announced Wednesday. The club will announce a replacement later in the day.

«We would like to sincerely thank Dominique for his work and contributions to the Montreal Canadiens organization,» said general manager Kent Hughes. «At this point in the season, we felt it was in the best interest of the club to make a change.»

Ducharme became head coach in Montreal on July 31, 2021, signing a three-year deal that removed his own interim label. After joining the Canadiens in 2018 as an assistant, Ducharme had been promoted to replace fired coach Claude Julien in February 2021 before securing a longer-term pact.

While he was interim head coach, Ducharme led the Canadiens to an unlikely Stanley Cup Final appearance last season in the NHL's pandemic-shortened campaign. Montreal has been a shadow of itself since then though, sitting dead last in the NHL this year with an 8-30-7 record.

Ducharme's firing comes after perhaps the Canadiens' worst loss of the season Tuesday, a 7-1 drubbing against New Jersey. The 48-year-old now leaves Montreal with an overall 23-46-12 mark.

This is the second major shift for the Canadiens this season. The first was general manager Marc Bergevin being relieved of his duties in November, and Jeff Gorton being hired as executive vice president of hockey operations. Then last month, the Canadiens introduced Hughes as their new general manager. It is Hughes' first such position in hockey, after spending most of his career as a player agent.

The status of Montreal's assistant coaches Alex Burrows, Éric Gravel, Mario Leblanc, Trevor Letowski, Éric Raymond and Luke Richardson remains unchanged.