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What should we read into the timing of the departure of Donald Beauchamp?

On Thursday afternoon, the Canadiens announced Beauchamp, the team’s senior vice-president (communications), was leaving the organization effective May 15. He joined the Habs as director of communications in 1993 and was promoted to vice-president of communications in 2002. The club said he will remain involved as a member of the board of directors of the Canadiens Children’s Foundation.

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Many of us found it odd the team announced the departure less than two weeks before the end of the hockey season.

“After a quarter of century in this challenging role that requires total commitment, I realized that the timing is right to depart as I intend to dedicate more time to my family,” Beauchamp said in a release. “It is with a heavy heart that I came to this decision, however the time has come to move on.”

If Beauchamp was retiring of his own volition, why would the team not ask him to wait until the season was over? And, even more reasonably, why not delay his exit until the Habs had gone through the end-of-season post-mortem period and the June 22-23 NHL Entry Draft, which are two busy periods for the communications department?