The Montreal Canadiens had a miserable season in 2011-12. They missed the playoffs by a wide margin, fired their coach and put Randy Cunneyworth in an impossible situation, they traded players in the middle of games, they acquired Tomas Kaberle for some reason and finished with 78 points.
At the end of the season, they decided to also fire the general manager and replaced him with Marc Bergevin. Bergevin had a lengthy NHL career, playing close to 1200 games as a left defenceman. Ironically, since becoming a general manager, his largest blemish has been his inability to find a true top pairing left defenceman.