Dominique Ducharme resigns as Halifax Mooseheads head coach

The Halifax Mooseheads are on the hunt for a new head coach after Dominique Ducharme resigned from the job Monday citing personal reasons.

"This is just about being closer to my kids, my girlfriend and my family who I've been apart from for a few years now," said Ducharme in a news release sent out by the Mooseheads on Monday afternoon.

Ducharme was a new coach in the QMJHL when he was hired by Halifax five years ago.

The highlight of his Mooseheads coaching career came in the spring of 2013 when Ducharme guided a powerhouse Halifax team to a Memorial Cup championship.

'It's hard to leave'

The team was stacked with stars such as Nathan MacKinnon, Jonathan Drouin and Zach Fucale but Ducharme was still named CHL coach of the year.

"It's hard to leave a family like the Mooseheads," said Ducharme.

"But my kids will only be 11 and 13 once because I've missed a lot of things being away from them and I felt now it's time to be closer to them."

Home for Ducharme is in Joliette, Que. Two teams in the Quebec league that are near Ducharme's home, Drummondville and Victoriaville, are also looking for a new coach.

'It's not surprising'

Mooseheads general manager Cam Russell respects Ducharme's decision to leave the team.

"Dom's been away from his family for five years so it's not surprising," said Russell.

"We understand the move on his part, so it's something we support. It's hockey and there's always movement in the hockey world."

Ducharme's resignation comes at a crucial time for the Mooseheads.

Halifax will have a whopping six picks in the first two rounds of the upcoming draft and whoever comes in to take over the team will have a lot of young talent to work with.

Hunt for a new coach

"Now we'll look at interviewing coaches and we'll bring in the next best candidate," said Russell, who is assessing some of the talent at the World Under 18 hockey championships in Grand Forks, N.D., this week.

"We'll work very hard at that to make sure we have an excellent hockey coach in place."

While the team may go outside the organization to hire a new coach, they could decide to promote an assistant coach.
Jim Midgley filled in as head coach this season when Ducharme served as an assistant coach with Team Canada at the World Junior tournament in Finland.

The former AUS scoring champion, from his university days at Saint Mary's, has been with the Mooseheads for five seasons.