The Laval Rocket announced today the hiring of former QMJHL and NHL head coach Pascal Vincent as the team's new bench boss.
Vincent, 52, has had a tumultuous year. He came into this season as the right hand man for former Blue Jackets head coach Brad Larsen, who departed that summer.
With the hiring of notorious head coach Mike Babcock, the Blue Jackets put faith into Vincent by keeping him in his position as the Blue Jackets' associate coach.
All of a sudden, after just a few months Babcock quit as head coach due to backlash from unprofessional conduct and Vincent found himself as the quick and easy internal replacement, making him the Blue Jackets 10th head coach.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon phase quickly subsided as Vincent found himself trying to coach an already struggling team whose roster was built for the arrival of a different coach in Babcock.
There was lots of drama as former first round pick Yegor Chinakhov was reportedly unhappy with his role and was considering asking for a trade, and rookie Dmitry Voronkov was feeling homesick and thinking of leaving the team to return to Russia. All the while, the team's general manager Jarmo Kekalainen was on the hot seat, before ultimately being let go by the team in February.
While the team record improved slightly under Vincent from the year prior, it's no surprise with all the noise that the team was last in the Eastern Conference yet again with a 27-43-12 record, leading to the eventual divorce between the Blue Jackets and Vincent.
Long before coaching in pro hockey, Vincent coached for 12 seasons in the QMJHL, split between the then Cape Breton Screaming Eagles and the Montreal Juniors. It was with Cape Breton where Vincent was named the QMJHL's coach of the year in 2008.
For Vincent, the hiring by the Rocket is a special one as he himself was born in Laval. Hopefully, the homecoming can get his coaching career back on track after last year's hiccup.