![\"Brendan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0626-city-gallagher-9478_303931248.jpg\")
Brendan Gallagher is named a citizen of honour of Montreal by Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada on Thursday. Evan Buhler \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\nIf you\u2019re a Habs fan, you love Brendan Gallagher. He literally bled bleu blanc rouge during every shift of his 14 years with the Montreal Canadiens and, along the way, he played some mighty fine hockey for the team, notably twice scoring more than 30 goals.<\/p>\n
But you really do have to wonder what Montreal Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada was thinking when she decided to pay homage to him this week by naming the Habs right-winger a citizen of honour of Montreal at a ceremony at City Hall on Thursday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Brendan Gallagher is named a citizen of honour of Montreal by Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada on Thursday. Evan Buhler \/ Montreal Gazette<\/p>\n
In case the mayor didn\u2019t notice, Gallagher is in the midst of a bit of a conflict with the hockey team that has employed him for his entire National Hockey League career. He was benched for 16 of the Canadiens\u2019 19 games during this year\u2019s playoffs.<\/p>\n
In the Eastern Conference final against Carolina, with the Habs battered game after game by the much more powerful Hurricanes, many fans and some pundits wondered why head coach Martin St. Louis didn\u2019t turn to Gallagher to kick start the flagging team. When St. Louis brought in the diminutive forward with so much heart to play midway through the first round series against the Tampa Bay Lightning, he scored on his first shift.<\/p>\n
But he never played against the Hurricanes and afterward, when the players cleared out their lockers, an emotional Gallagher said he was done with the Canadiens.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s pretty clear I\u2019ll be kind of moving on here,\u201d he said that day.<\/p>\n
Right after that, he looked down at the ground, with his baseball cap covering his face, and began crying. A hat by the way that was not a Montreal one.<\/p>\n
\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n
At the ceremony Thursday, Canadiens owner Geoff Molson paid tribute to Gallagher and made it clear Gally has played his last game with the team.<\/p>\n
I get it. It happens. Players get older and they\u2019re no longer useful to the team. But it was a tough one for the fans to stomach and I still hear from people all the time who feel the team didn\u2019t treat him with the respect he deserved, that he should\u2019ve been given a last game with the Canadiens in that series. Personally, I think he should\u2019ve played. Maybe it wouldn\u2019t have changed anything, but it wasn\u2019t like the guys who were dressed were getting the job done. His passion was precisely what was missing from the team at that point.<\/p>\n
So it just seems weird to have the mayor honouring him right in the middle of this situation with the team. Fact is, Gally has forced the team\u2019s hand. Maybe they weren\u2019t ready to trade him. Well, now they have to.<\/p>\n
At his press conference Thursday, Canadiens president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton didn\u2019t sound thrilled by the mayor\u2019s decision, saying with what seemed a hint of sarcasm: \u201cWell, I think it\u2019s Brendan Gallagher Day, right, in Montreal?\u201d<\/p>\n
Gorton went on to say they are in discussions with Gallagher about his future.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe continue to talk to Brendan, we\u2019ve been pretty open with him and supportive and we\u2019ll see what happens here,\u201d Gorton said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had private conversations with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t sound thrilled about that, either.<\/p>\n
Apparently, this distinction from City Hall is given to people \u201cwho had a lasting impact on the well-being of Montrealers through their actions, art and commitment.\u201d<\/p>\n
The list of previous nominees online goes back to 2002 and does not include any Canadiens. Previous recipients include CTV anchor Mutsumi Takahashi, former premiers Lucien Bouchard and Robert Bourassa, playwright Antonine Maillet, businessman and former Expos owner Charles Bronfman, jazz musician Oliver Jones and authors Dany Laferri\u00e8re and Mordecai Richler.<\/p>\n
Even if the mayor was going to choose a Canadiens player, why not, for example, Carey Price, who is certainly the most notable Hab of the past two decades? How about P.K. Subban, a player (not much liked by Gallagher) who did so much for the city, notably raising $10 million for the Montreal Children\u2019s Hospital, something he continued to contribute to years after he was traded away by the Canadiens?<\/p>\n
The whole thing just seems like an attempt by Martinez Ferrada to get a bit of a publicity bump without giving much thought to it.<\/p>\n
The best explanation I heard was from a friend who said Quebecers tend to feel bad for people who are wronged and want to somehow make it right. That kind of makes sense. Maybe the mayor is giving the honour to Gallagher because she wants to cheer him up after the bitter way his career with the Canadiens ended.<\/p>\n