MONTREAL, QC — The Montreal Canadiens have announced that Laval Rocket head coach, Sylvain Lefebvre, has been relieved of his duties.

The Canadiens posted a press release announcing the decision by general manager Marc Bergevin on Tuesday afternoon.

“I would like to sincerely thank Sylvain for his loyalty, his hard work and his contribution to the Montreal Canadiens’ organization over the past six seasons with Hamilton, St. John’s and Laval,” said Marc Bergevin. “Challenges are extremely demanding as a head coach in the AHL, and Sylvain and his group had to overcome several difficult situations over the years.”

Lefebvre has been the head coach of the Canadiens AHL affiliate, the Bullogs, the IceCaps and the Rocket, since June 13, 2012.

Bergevin added, “The decision to remove Sylvain from his coaching duties was a difficult one because I have a lot of respect for him and I consider him to be an excellent coach. I took the time to discuss the situation with Larry Carrière, and concluded that our development team needed a new direction in the head coaching position.”

It appears that the head coaching position will be the only change for now in Laval. Larry Carriere remains as general manager. The press release goes on to say that “the status of assistant coaches Donald Dufresne, Nick Carrière and Marco Marciano will be determined once the selection process of the new head coach is completed.”

You can see our year-end interview with coach Lefebvre here.