{"id":755598,"date":"2026-06-23T18:41:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/755598\/"},"modified":"2026-06-23T18:41:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T18:41:15","slug":"brendan-gallagher-searching-for-purpose-as-he-ponders-next-landing-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/755598\/","title":{"rendered":"Brendan Gallagher searching for \u2018purpose\u2019 as he ponders next landing spot"},"content":{"rendered":"

It appears that Brendan Gallagher<\/a>\u2019s time in Montreal is coming to an end after 14 seasons.<\/p>\n

The veteran forward told reporters at the team\u2019s locker cleanout earlier this month<\/a> that it was \u201cpretty clear I\u2019ll kind of be moving on here\u201d as he thanked his teammates and the organization.<\/p>\n

While the 34-year-old forward is set to finish up the final year of a six-year deal this coming season at a $6.5 million cap hit, it certainly fe\u200bels like his time with the Canadiens is over.<\/p>\n

Gallagher spoke at length with The Athletic\u2019s Arpon Basu<\/a> in a wide-ranging story posted Monday that involved Gallagher taking a hard look at his NHL future.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different, it\u2019s unique for sure,\u201d Gallagher told Basu about facing an uncertain future at this stage of his career. \u201cEven going back to junior, I\u2019ve never changed teams. I\u2019ve always had the comfort, the familiarity factor. So it\u2019s going to be a different challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I\u2019ve always been excited about challenges. I feel like I can handle them, I feel like I\u2019m prepared. It\u2019s going to be different. I know what I\u2019m capable of as a player. I just need to make the right decisions now and put myself in the right position where I can do that, find my purpose again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The oldest player on the Canadiens roster at 34, Gallagher saw a career low in ice time this season at 12:21 per game and for the first time since January of 2013 as a rookie, he was made a healthy scratch on March 14. He also only played in three of Montreal\u2019s 19 playoff games.<\/p>\n

He finished the regular season with seven goals and 23 points \u2013 both career lows for a full season \u2013 in 77 games.<\/p>\n

Gallagher said he could see the writing on the wall as the season went on and his ice time dwindled.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, your senses kind of go up,\u201d the right winger said. \u201cThere were just certain situations where little things that happened, certain responsibilities that you had were shifted other ways. I could tell they were maybe looking elsewhere. And maybe this happens last year if I don\u2019t score as much as I did early on in the season. It\u2019s just one of those things where you could see it coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout halfway through the season, I kind of figured it out. I could kind of sense the direction they were looking to go. And it was OK. At that point, I had had conversations with them and they were super open with me, and I\u2019ll always be appreciative of their honesty, and it\u2019s OK with me as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallagher said he prefers that his next destination is close to his current home in Montreal, or his family\u2019s home in Vancouver. Gallagher made it clear finding a situation that works for his family is what he\u2019s most focused on this summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst and foremost, the priority is my family. So that\u2019s No. 1 always. I\u2019ve got a daughter that\u2019s going to be under 2 and a newborn. She can\u2019t be doing that alone,\u201d Gallagher said, referring to his wife, Emma Fortin. \u201cSo, we need to be in a position where we\u2019re generally close [to family] and we can get some help. And then after that, I want to be in a position where you have purpose. You\u2019re always trying to win; that\u2019s always the goal. But that\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve kind of learned this year: when purpose is taken away from you, it affects me as a person. I think it would affect anyone in their job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gallagher has spent all 14 of his NHL seasons in Montreal after being drafted in the fifth round in 2010. He has 246 goals and 487 points in 911 career regular season games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It appears that Brendan Gallagher\u2019s time in Montreal is coming to an end after 14 seasons. The veteran…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":755599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[16159,64,63,309720,143497,575,85],"class_list":["post-755598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-apple-news","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brendan-gallagher-sports-hockey-player-player-nhl-api-8475848","tag-montreal-canadiens-sports-hockey-team-team-nhl-api-8","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=755598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/755598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/755599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=755598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=755598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=755598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}