Assistant Luke Richardson will return next season after agreeing to a three-year contract Wednesday. Richardson stepped in to coach the Canadiens when Ducharme missed six playoff games because he tested positive for COVID-19 on June 18, before Game 3 of the semifinals. Ducharme returned to coach Game 3 of the Final, a 6-3 loss, after being required to quarantine for 14 days.
"He's got really good hockey knowledge," Ducharme said of Richardson on June 19, "but also he's that kind of guy you want to be going through adversity or facing obstacles, you want a guy like that on your side. He's a true person. He's the best teammate you can have."
Ducharme said he expects assistant Alexandre Burrows to return next season, and goalie consultant Sean Burke to be back in some capacity. The Canadiens will hire a full-time goaltending coach if Burke opts to stay with his family and work from his home in Arizona.
The Canadiens defeated the Toronto Maple Leafs in seven games in the Stanley Cup First Round, winning the final three games of the best-of-7 series. Montreal swept the Winnipeg Jets in the second round and defeated the Vegas Golden Knights in six games in the Stanley Cup Semifinals.
"We're all here for the same reason," Ducharme said. "I want every one of them to individually have success, but mostly, that's our job, collectively, having success. At the same time we all have our job to do, and we talked about that with the players. I mean, we're bringing the plan. We're adjusting the plan where we show the direction, what we want to do. Their job is to get into that and bring their own individual skills and personality, as a player, within our team structure.
"I said it all along, it was a great group. I like things to be really clear and to communicate with them and making sure that we're all on the same page. So I think the relationship with the group is really good."
Prior to joining the Canadiens, Ducharme coached Canada to first place at the 2018 IIHF World Junior Championship after a second-place finish the year before. He coached seven seasons in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League with Halifax (2011-16) and Drummondville (2016-18), winning the Memorial Cup with Halifax in 2013.
"Dominique has managed to set his system in place and establish himself as a head coach in a very unusual season with challenging circumstances," Bergevin said. "While our team has gone through its fair share of adversity, he has shown a lot of control over the situation as well as showing calm and great leadership. These are important qualities that we look for in a head coach and he fully deserves the chance to lead our team and take it to the next level."
The Canadiens added several players through trades and as a free agent last offseason: forwards Tyler Toffoli, Josh Anderson and Corey Perry; defenseman Joel Edmundson; and goalie Jake Allen. Defenseman Alexander Romanov signed a three-year, entry-level contract after two seasons with CSKA Moscow in the Kontinental Hockey League. Forward Cole Caufield, the No. 15 pick in the 2019 NHL Draft, made his NHL debut April 26 and scored 12 points (four goals, eight assists) in 20 playoff games.
"We were a fairly new group," Ducharme said. "The new guys coming in, the number of new guys coming in, there's guys that went through different things and learning to win together and playing together. If we take that experience we learned in the playoffs and use it the right way, I think it's going to make us better. I've always believed that if you do good things, good things will happen to you."
NHL.com staff writer Mike Zeisberger contributed to this report
