Dany Brunet resigns as head coach of Les Canadiennes

The winningest coach in CWHL history has stepped down

Dany Brunet, who has been the head coach of Les Canadiennes de Montréal since 2013, has stepped down from his position due to personal reasons. The team has opted to make themselves unavailable for further comment over the weekend.

Brunet won the CWHL’s Coach of the Year Award in 2015 and led Montréal to a Clarkson Cup Championship in 2017.

Brunet stood behind Montréal’s bench for 131 regular season games. He won his 100th game last week and finished with a 100-25-2-4 record, making him the winningest coach in CWHL history. At the time of his resignation, he was also the longest-serving coach in the league along with Kelly Sudia, who is the video and technical skills coach — as well as the operations manager — for Les Canadiennes. With Brunet’s resignation, Jim Jackson of the Markham Thunder is now the longest-serving head coach in the CWHL.

Montréal plans to name an interim head coach shortly. For the time being, Caroline Ouellette takes over coaching duties for this weekend’s much-anticipated series against the Inferno in Calgary. Les Canadiennes have five more games to play before the holiday break, but they will be in China for three games in mid-December.

Needless to say, Brunet’s departure leaves a big hole for general manager Meg Hewings to fill. Thankfully, there are a number of potential candidates in-house, including Ouellette, for Hewings to explore.