Chicoutimi cleans house in weirdest way possible; Yanick Jean to take over Sags

In what will be one of the most bizarre stories to come out of the QMJHL this season, the Chicoutimi Saguen

éens had enough of GM Marc Fortier and head coach Patrice Bosch.

They fired them and replaced them both with Victoriaville Tigres GM Yanick Jean.

One problem: the news broke in the middle of Chicoutimi’s game Friday night in Rimouski, and Fortier and Bosch weren’t told of their firing until early Saturday morning, likely when they arrived back in Chicoutimi, and after everyone knew they were pink-slipped.

The Tigres confirmed Jean was leaving for Chicoutimi well before the Sags announced their coach and GM were fired. Victoriaville allowed Jean to speak with Chicoutimi in the last week to work out the details.

Reports of Chicoutimi cleaning house and signing Jean were first penned by RDS’s Stephane Leroux at around 7 PM ET, right after puck drop at the Colisée de Rimouski, and spread like wildfire among QMJHL circles.

Bosch and Fortier led their team as the lamest-of-lame ducks to a 5-3 loss against the Oceanic. Chicoutimi is sitting in a disappointing second-last with a 9-15-2-0 record.

Bosch was in his second season with the club, while Fortier worked as GM since the summer of 2011.

Saguenéens assistant GM and scout Daniel Langlois resigned last night, out of solidarity to Fortier and Bosch.

Jean was announced officially as head coach and general manager in a press conference Saturday in Chicoutimi.

He has signed a four year deal with the Saguenéens in the dual role, to be under contract for with this season and the next three. He has been given the keys to right the ship and has complete control to choose who he wants to work with and what he can do to turn the franchise around.

Of course, once Langlois resigned, there was no one else in the hockey administration department left anyway.

Jean was born in nearby Alma, Que., and played for Chicoutimi from 1992-1996. He was an assistant coach with the club from 2002 to 2005.

From the sounds of things, it seems like Chicoutimi was going to axe both Fortier and Bosch on Sunday or Monday, and announce the Jean hiring mid-week next week. Then RDS got the report from somewhere. The Tigres, having let Jean talk to the Sags this week about the job, confirm Jean is gone to the Sags, because that is likely the information they have at the time, or it screws over a rival team. This is the QMJHL, remember.

The Sagueneens, who likely wanted to do the right thing all along, were left holding the bag and probably wanted to meet in person to give their employees their walking papers, hence why Bosch and Fortier were told so late in the process.

#BecauseItsTheQ indeed.

This truly bizarre story brings a short end to an uncomfortable situation in Victoriaville, where Jean was fired as coach and replaced by Bruce Richardson last summer, only to take the job upstairs as GM when Jérôme Mésonéro left the team to join the Colorado Avalanche as a scout.

The experiment lasted 26 games and a 13-10-0-3 record, putting the Tigres in 12^th place in the QMJHL with 29 points. The Saguenéens, a rival in the East division, sit nine points back of Victoriaville.

Jean had a clause in his contract with the Tigres that said he could be released if there was an opportunity to have a dual role with a QMJHL team. That opportunity opened up on Friday.

He will stay in Victoriaville for the next couple of days to finish up his duties as the GM of the Tigres, before joining the Saguenéens next week. Victoriaville is in Val-d’Or to face the Foreurs Saturday, but Jean was present in Chicoutimi for his introductory press conference.

His assistant coaches in Chicoutimi, Mathieu Chouinard and Patrick Gosselin, will manage the team Sunday in Drummondville.