The Montreal makeover continues.
After bringing back Michel Therrien for his second stint behind the Canadiens bench on Tuesday, Montreal is set to add Martin Lapointe as the club's new director of player development, TSN reported on Wednesday.
Lapointe spent three seasons on the opposite side of hockey's fiercest rivalry, playing in Boston from 2001-04. Lapointe came to the Bruins on one of the most infamous free agent deals of the pre-lockout era, cashing in on a career year with the Red Wings when he tallied 27 goals and 57 points in 2000-01 with a four-year, $20 million deal with the Bruins.
Lapointe went on to post modest totals in Boston, never scoring more than 17 goals in a season and finishing with a 40-43-83 line in 205 games over three years before the final season on his deal was wiped out by the owners' lockout.
While he spent the bulk of his 991 NHL games with Original Six teams, coming up with Detroit and also playing in Boston and Chicago, Lapointe does have ties to Montreal as well. He's a Quebec native and played his junior hockey under Therrien in Laval. He also played with new Montreal general manager Marc Bergevin in Detroit in the mid-90s.
After finishing his playing career in Ottawa in 2008, Lapointe also worked with Bergevin in the Blackhawks organization. Lapointe served as a pro scout while Bergevin worked his way up to assistant GM before landing the Montreal job this spring.
According to TSN, Lapointe also considered joining Therrien's staff as an assistant coach, but instead chose to stay on the management track in the front office.
There was an opportunity to be an assistant coach after the Canadiens announced on Wednesday that assistants Randy Cunneyworth and Randy Ladouceur had been relieved of their duties. Cunneyworth had served as the Canadiens' interim head coach after Jacques Martin was fired last December, but Cunneyworth was demoted back to an assistant role when Bergevin was named GM and began the search for a new coach.
Bergevin said at the time that whoever he hired would have the discretion to retain the current assistants or assemble a staff of his own, and Therrien has obviously chosen the latter.
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