Lightning Round: Montreal hires Vincent Lecavalier as a special advisor to hockey operations

The Montreal Canadiens continued the rebuilding of their management structure with two new appointments yesterday: the former Tampa Bay Lightning forward Vincent Lecavalier was hired as a special advisor to hockey operations, while Nick Bobrov will be Montreal’s new co-director of amateur scouting, sharing his duties with Martin Lapointe.

The hiring of Lecavalier was highly anticipated since the Canadiens announced his former Tampa Bay Lightning teammate Martin St. Louis as their interim coach. Lecavalier, who was the first client of the new Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes during his player agent career, was initially expected to be named an assistant GM, but couldn’t take this role due to his desire to stay with his family in Tampa.

Explaining his role via zoom press conference, Lecavalier admitted that the best thing he likes about his new role is that it’s not clearly defined and he can help in every department. He will be supporting Kent Hughes himself, Martin St. Louis and other coaches and also mentioned that he could also working with the scouting department. Reportedly he has been already watching videos for the Canadiens during the past month and was already involved in Tyler Toffoli trade.

Lecavalier was selected as the first overall pick by the Lightning in 1998. He spent 14 seasons with the Lightning, recording 874 (383+491) points in 1037 regular season games and winning the Stanley Cup with the team in 2004. In summer 2013 his contract was bought out by the Lightning, which would pay Lecavalier a total of $32.67 million over next 14 years. Currently the Lightning are obligated to pay him $1.7 million per year till the 2026-27 season.

Lightning Links

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