Michel Therrien was asked about a handful of questions fans, media, and analysts had heading into the off-season — and his answers, particularly regarding 21 year old forward Alex Galchenyuk, were a little too Therrien-y for most people’s tastes.

#Habs Therrien on Galchenyuk at C: "Near the point (of placing him there)" but wants to put 27 in positions where he won't lose confidence. — John Lu (@JohnLuTSNMtl) August 11, 2015

Drafted third overall in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft, Galchenyuk has been pushed to the wing with the Canadiens — and it seems like that’s been intentional, with a gradual plan to move him to centre ‘when he’s ready for it’. If Therrien’s assertion here is accurate, there’s a concern that the American-born Galchenyuk will struggle with his confidence if put in a position where he’s manning the pivot for one of the team’s top three lines (there’s an assumption that Therrien won’t place Galchenyuk on the fourth line).

While this is possibly the case — after all, Galchenyuk only just recently turned 21, which made him one of the youngest top six players in the NHL last year — there are plenty of examples around the league of other skaters handling heavier responsibility when given it, especially when it gave teams the opportunity to ignite their offense. Sean Monahan of the Calgary Flames is perhaps one of the league’s best examples; serving as pivot for the top line on the Pacific Division club in the 2014-2015 season, Monahan (like Galchenyuk, drafted in the top ten of his Entry Draft with a sixth overall selection in 2013) managed to both drive offense and develop chemistry as a top line centre for the Flames in what would amount to his sophomore NHL season.

Then again, the Canadiens had certain issues last year that Therrien didn’t seem to think were problems at all. His insistence that scoring wasn’t a problem for the Atlantic Division club — being quoted as saying that the team ‘only scored 10 goals fewer than the Stanley Cup champions’ last year — identifies a disconnect between what he saw as problems on the ice and what many others criticized the team for. He also suggested that Semin will be given some breathing room with the club, saying that it won’t be ‘his way or the highway’, although that seems to be how he’s handling Galchenyuk’s development — leaving questions about what he finds to be the best way to approach developing his highest-end players.

There’s no reason to believe that Therrien is necessarily in the hot seat, but he still has yet to change the way he approaches coaching his club — and if their underlying problems don’t seem to get better this season, he may have to answer to a firing squad in the near future.