I remember the moment like it was yesterday.

The media was packed into the press conference room at the Bell Centre on Feb. 8, 2010 to hear the news that Bob Gainey was stepping down as Canadiens general manager and would be replaced by his assistant, Pierre Gauthier.

Having made a few remarks explaining his departure, including his plans to watch the upcoming Olympics in the still-novel HDTV, Gainey got up and left the stage to Gauthier and the man who hired him, team president Pierre Boivin.

After some time had passed, and after assuring Gauthier I meant no disrespect with my question, I decided to ask Boivin if any external search had been conducted to find a successor for Gainey.

"The list of individuals who can adequately be general managers in the National Hockey League is not a list that goes on infinitely," Boivin's answer began. "There are very few people in the world that can do this job, and the vast majority of them are under contract and untouchables. When you look at the criteria to be successful in this job in this market, you come to a list of individuals who have experience, who have the ability communicate in both languages, who have a track record and who are prepared to be here. Your list now is down very quickly. It's not a typical hire. You do your homework, you make sure you turn over every rock and you hire the best person available. We were fortunate that person was in our organization already."

The moment I remember so clearly is the utter shock I felt when I heard those words, ability to communicate in both languages. Never before had I been under the impression that bilingualism was a criteria to be general manager of the Montreal Canadiens.

Head coach? Absolutely.

He has to deal with the media on a daily basis, and to hire someone who could not speak French would be a slap in the face to the great majority of the lifeblood of the team, the fans. The ones who hang on every word that comes out of that building. The ones that buy jerseys. The ones that pay exorbitant prices for tickets, beer and hot dogs.

The same consideration applies to finding Francophone players those fans can connect with, can idolize, can take pride in.

But general manager? This was new to me, and judging by the conversations I had with several of my colleagues after the press conference, it appeared to be new to many of them as well.

One of those colleagues, the Team 990's Tony Marinaro, happened to be sitting right next to me that day and eventually followed up on Boivin's answer, asking him to expand on the importance of needing a bilingual general manager.

"You bet it's important. There's no question," Boivin said. "This is one of the unique aspects of our franchise. It's part of our life, it's part of our culture, it's part of our mission. We operate in the province of Quebec, two thirds or three quarters of our fans are Francophones. I think it's the minimum of respect to be able to communicate for the coach and the general manager and the president and now the owner is bilingual. It's very important that we be able to communicate in French."

Prior to that moment, it had never been blatantly obvious that this was indeed the case.

Thinning the pool

Since Boivin came on board in 1999 only two general managers had been hired prior to Gauthier. The first was André Savard, who was indeed Francophone but who was also one of the best available candidates at the time. He was largely credited for unearthing the talent in the draft that quickly built the Ottawa Senators, a scouting wizard who would benefit the Canadiens immensely.

When that didn't work out, hiring Gainey was seen as an even bigger coup. The fact he could speak French was understood as a nice bonus, especially since Gainey hardly ever spoke to the media in a formal setting, or at all, for that matter.

No, as far as anyone could really tell, Feb. 8, 2010 was the first time the Canadiens ever bluntly stated that their general manager had to be bilingual – not necessarily Francophone, but bilingual.

Having that as a ruling guideline, hiring Gauthier truly was a no brainer – and in my eyes a good hire based on his body of work thus far. He was probably the only man on the continent who qualified for the job in that he was available, had experience and could speak both languages – even if his perfect bilingualism is kept under wraps all year except for a tiny handful of press conferences where he artfully dodges questions with similar ease in both official languages.

Competitive disadvantage

On Wednesday morning, The Gazette published a story by Dave Stubbs where Boivin openly lamented this cruel reality of managing the team.

His bitterness – at least that's what comes through on paper – is understandable considering how many times Boivin has had to give interviews over the past dozen years defending the Canadiens efforts in trying to unearth homegrown, Francophone players.

Every time a Francophone would blossom elsewhere and the Canadiens had passed on him in the draft – whether it was Daniel Brière, Patrice Bergeron, Jason Pominville, David Perron or Claude Giroux – Boivin had to answer the same questions, just as he did in Stubbs' piece.

But then he goes on to talk about the difficulties of hiring management when the criteria is so limiting, saying it makes the Canadiens "severely competitively disadvantaged."

"There's one general manager in the league this year who speaks French and he's in Montreal," Boivin tells Stubbs. "If Pierre Gauthier gets hit by a bus, what does (team owner) Geoff Molson do? Every other team says: 'There are 29 others out there, how many contracts are up?' Thirty assistant GMs might be prepared to step up, like a Steve Yzerman (in Tampa), and then there's 30 AHL managers.

"So they have a pool of 90, (even if) not all are good or are available. We have a pool of three, four, five maybe? Sometimes none? It's the same thing with coaches. And that's a huge disadvantage when human capital is your most important asset. So we have to groom them."

Sounds nice, but I'm not buying it.

A lasting legacy

I think Boivin did some tremendous things in his time as president of the Canadiens, with the establishment of the children's foundation and the construction of a behemoth brand chief among them.

But in my eyes, neither of those two considerable accomplishments will be his legacy.

No, I will always remember that shock I felt back on Feb. 8, 2010 when Boivin became the first man to openly admit with such conviction that the Canadiens absolutely must have a bilingual general manager, a criteria I believe was never imposed on him by ownership, the media or the fans, and one that will continually perpetuate the competitive disadvantage he finds so galling.

Except it was a criteria he seemingly created himself, so to lament it now rings somewhat hollow.