Brendan Gallagher has become the elephant in the room for the Montreal Canadiens.
The relationship between Gallagher and Martin St-Louis is no longer what it used to be.
Worse still, it gets worse. In fact, it seems like they can’t feel each other anymore. The uneasiness between the two men grows, and we can no longer pretend: St-Louis is no longer able to see Gallagher in the picture, even in an insignificant role on the fourth line.
St. Louis is so no longer capable that it ignores the veteran.
Gallagher, with his ridiculous $6.5 million per season contract through 2027, finds himself in survival mode, forced into a role that doesn’t suit him.
And the blunt truth is that everyone in the organization knows full well that Gallagher’s future is sealed. Redeemed in 2025? It’s practically written in the sky.
However, despite his almost guaranteed place on the buyout list, the veteran drags his discomfort into the locker room like a burden too heavy to bear.
Worse still, he’s acting like a fool because Martin St-Louis didn’t give him any auditions in the top 9. Everyone had the right to an audition, even the most obscure plumbers.
But not Gallagher FINISHED him. He is no longer the warrior of yesteryear. He became a walking BAD.
Martin St-Louis, for his part, seems to have turned the page on what Gallagher represented in the past. The way he ignored him during this camp is humiliating.
Not a mention of Gally during the press briefings. Not a hint of a more important role. Nothing. Gallagher is no longer part of the plans, and everyone knows it.
Yet the most alarming thing about all of this is this obvious tension between the two men. We may not have a shock statement to confirm their animosity, but the shifty glances and total lack of interaction speak for themselves.
Gallagher is invisible. But we still see him sulking from miles away.
It’s as if St. Louis and Kent Hughes have already cleaned up their heads. Hockey today is for young people, and Gallagher is a dinosaur in this new era.
A dinosaur with a finite body. A sulking dinosaur. A dinosaur that should no longer be on the ice, but in the stands.
No one really wants to say it out loud, but everyone knows Gallagher won’t be around much longer.
At 32, with his worn body and his best years behind him, he is doomed.
Condemned to be redeemed. To be humiliated on the left of the 4th line even though he is a right winger. Condemned to find himself in his coach’s nice for his last year of life in the NHL.
Even his influence in the locker room has taken a hit. His presence is an uncomfortable reminder of what he no longer is. The discomfort is real, and the end is fast approaching. Its takeover in 2025 is no longer in doubt.
For now, everyone is playing ostrich. We let him play a few minutes here and there, on a fourth line where he clearly doesn’t belong, as if we were trying to gently push him towards the exit without making too much noise.
But the truth will soon emerge: Brendan Gallagher has been a shadow of himself for years, and Martin St-Louis is no longer ready to defend a player he no longer wants.
Gallagher is mad at St. Louis. For several reasons.
Martin St-Louis has made it clear that he favors young players over worn veterans. But what shocks Gallagher is the way he is treated.
In his mind, unlike other veterans who benefit from a certain respect for their services rendered, he is literally cast aside, without regard for what he has accomplished in the past.
Relegating him to a fourth line, moreover to the left wing when he is a natural right winger, is like hammering a nail into the coffin of his career. And St-Louis knows that very well.
Gallagher, who was once the king of the locker room, finds himself in a humiliating position. Worse still, St-Louis never bothered to justify this choice publicly.
Is this a deliberate desire to make Gallagher understand that his time is over?
The striker should still be reminded that if there was real justice on this earth, or rather on this ice, Gallagher would be in the stands.
If there was real justice, Marc Bergevin would never have awarded him this contract and he would already be retired. So when Gallagher makes a joke about the way he is treated, let’s say that CH fans must want to tell him the truth in his face.
If Martin St-Louis did not want to publicly question Gallagher’s performance, it is perhaps because everyone already knows the answer: the physical decline is obvious.
At 32 years old, Gallagher has accumulated an incredible number of injuries that have left undeniable after-effects. His numerous hand surgeries, his intense play which made him successful, all of this ended up wearing his body to the point of no return.
Gallagher is in pain. He hurts everywhere. He is no longer able to withstand the hectic pace of the National Hockey League.
Gallagher, once a vocal leader and inspirational figure for young people, is now a walking malaise.
His colleagues respect him, of course, but his embarrassing situation creates a strange climate in the locker room.
How to support a player who no longer has the ability to keep up while knowing that he is preventing the team from progressing by taking up a significant portion of the payroll and ice time of a player who would be much more useful than him?
Gallagher knows he’s a problem, that he’s THE PROBLEM, even if he refuses to admit it publicly. And this discomfort is felt by everyone.
This is the hot potato that no one dares to approach. Even Martin St-Louis, who has always been frank and direct, avoids the subject.
But behind the scenes, the discussions are much more frank. Gallagher no longer has his place on this team in full transition.
The worst part of this situation is that Brendan Gallagher has no way out. Unlike some veterans who find a second life in Europe or in supporting roles elsewhere, Gallagher seems stuck.
He is deeply rooted in Quebec, and his family ties (notably with his fiancée Emma Fortin) link him to Montreal. Exile to Europe to finish his career therefore seems unlikely.
And in the NHL? What team would want to take on a worn out, overpaid player? Gallagher simply no longer has a market. The Montreal Canadiens have become his golden prison.
Brendan Gallagher knows his time with the Canadian is numbered. But rather than accepting this reality with grace, he continues to fight against a current too powerful for him…by sulking.
He clings to a leadership role that he no longer has the means to assume, and this makes everyone around the CH embarrassed, even inconvenienced.
Journalists did not fail to point out that Gallagher seems to be caught in a harmful spiral, aware of his increasingly obvious limitations in the NHL.
His frustration and feelings of helplessness seem to have pushed him to adopt an increasingly destructive approach on the ice.
It seems the time has come for decisive intervention. It is widely anticipated that Martin St-Louis will take action behind the scenes, personally asking Kent Hughes to buy out Gallagher’s contract at the first opportunity next summer.
By the way, it’s clear he’s already asked her. In the meantime, it’s better to send him to the stands than to the left of the 4th line.
At some point, it’s time to accept reality.
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