As soon as the words "important announcement regarding the Club's management" were read on the media advisory sent out this morning by the Montreal Canadiens, the immediate thoughts were that Bob Gainey would be out as the team's general manager. During a news conference this afternoon, Gainey made it official that he would be stepping down from the post and staying on in an advisory role with the club. Gainey leaves a Canadiens team that is currently sixth in the Eastern Co…

(SI.com) — TSN in Canada is reporting that Bob Gainey will step down as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens. A press conference has been called for 4 p.m. this afternoon.

The president of the Montreal Canadiens says Bob Gainey is stepping aside as general manager and being replaced by Pierre Gauthier. Team president Pierre Boivin says Monday that Gainey will remain with the team as a special counsel to Gauthier. Gauthier was the assistant general manager under Gainey.

((HT: RDS)) Bob Gainey has stepped down as general manager of the Montreal Canadiens this afternoon and the team has promoted Pierre Gauthier as Executive Vice President and General Manager. Gainey will stay with the front office in an advisory role

from Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail, When the Montreal Canadiens make the transition from Bob Gainey to Pierre Gauthier later today – presumably on an interim basis to start – I suspect the one question that everybody wants answered is one that won’t be; and that is, what was the plan that Gainey actually had in mind for the 2009-10 season and not the one that was actually put in place, which involved throwing a lot of money at Scott Gomez, Brian Gionta and Mike Cammalleri. I suspe…