Your greatest quality ? How do you define autonomy? Why should we choose you? Are you available evenings and weekends?
We all heard these questions when we applied for a job as a local pharmacy clerk. Does your teenager hope to work in one of the 382 stores in Carrefour Laval? He was surely entitled to these classics of interviews.
Except that an interview to become general manager of the Montreal Canadiens does not go exactly that way. We can imagine the questions a bit more robust.
This is obviously not the kind of exercise that the teams advertise. In addition, most of the candidates who were in the race when they were last hired, in 2012, have jobs elsewhere, and one of them has just been dismissed by the Habs.
François Giguère, on the other hand, is no longer in the hockey world. At least, not directly.
The former managing director of Avalanche is now a financial planner with A&I Financial Services, a Colorado-based firm. It is said that he is no longer “directly” in hockey because he still acts as an agent for coaches, a mandate that he fulfills with the greatest discretion. He even refuses to name the hockey people he represents.
Giguère, however, was kind enough to return to his interview experience with the Canadian in 2012.
The short and the long term
Our man came to the interview in a neglected role. Giguère was GM of the Avalanche from 2006-2009, worked as a consultant for the Bruins the following season, then had no NHL job for the next two years.
PHOTO ARCHIVES THE SUN
On May 24, 2006, François Giguère (left) was appointed general manager of the Colorado Avalanche by Pierre Lacroix (right), who then wanted to focus on his role as team president.
“It might not have been my last chance, but it was one of my last. The longer we are outside the game, the harder it is to come back, especially in the number 1 position of an organization, ”he recalls on the phone.
His interview took place in the presence of Geoff Molson and Kevin Gilmore, who was then COO of the Canadiens. Serge Savard, who had acted as advisor in this adventure, was therefore not there.
What executives want to know in such interviews? “They want to assess our individual skills,” he notes. And they want to know how we would improve the situation. What would be our vision for the organization? ”
In the short term, that’s how to improve the team on the ice. But in the long term, it’s how to structure the scouting, the development of the players and the identity that we want to give to the team.
Francois Giguere
Giguère insists on this last point. Coaches are often asked what “identity” they want for their club, but often the answer comes from above.
“The Flyers, for example, have long had the identity of a tough, bigger club. The Oilers are a club that skates, he notes. It is important to define the identity, because once that is done, it must go to all levels. For example, scouts must be familiar with the identity they are looking for in order to guide their choices. ”
By the gestures he made, we can guess what identity Marc Bergevin presented to Molson during his interview. In his first summer, he set the future in goal by awarding a six-year contract to Carey Price, the one around whom he built his team.
Price’s contract was announced on July 2. The day before, he agreed for four years with free agent Brandon Prust. On June 29, he also granted a four-year deal to another nasty player, Travis Moen. In the 2013 draft, the first on which he was able to really put his mark, the CH drafted strong men Michael McCarron in the first round and Connor Crisp in the third round.
PHOTO EDOUARD PLANTE-FRÉCHETTE, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Michael McCarron at the Canadiens rookie camp in the summer of 2013
This vision was also transposed in its hires. His first head coach was Michel Therrien, a coach who never hated rough play. His new hires, with the exception of Rick Dudley, have all been players who have collected penalty minutes during their careers; Scott Mellanby, Shane Churla and Rob Ramage have amassed over 2000 each!
Pierre Lacroix, a precedent
Giguère began in the field of hockey with the deceased Nordiques. So he was working for the organization when Agent Pierre Lacroix crossed over to the dark side of the force to become DG.
Gorton raised the possibility of an agent being hired, and quickly the name of Montrealer Kent Hughes began to circulate.
The biggest challenge for the agent is that the relationship changes if you have clients who suddenly become the boss. But Pierre Lacroix was not successful because he was a good agent. He got it because he was an incredible leader of men.
Francois Giguere
“It’s the same for the next GM. It is not because he will be, for example, a former player that he will be successful. He will have it because he has a vision, because he is a leader of men and women. ”
That said, Gorton himself is not a former player. Agents who have also played in the NHL are rather rare. With his openness to hiring a candidate “from left field”, isn’t there a risk of running out of people who have known the NHL as players?
“No, why close doors? Giguère asks himself. The key to every candidate is to recognize their strengths and weaknesses, and to make sure to surround themselves with people who have complementary qualities. A former player will have qualities that someone with my background does not have. Me, I had to surround myself with good talent assessors, because that was not my strength… ”
A fourth name
The more days go by, the more we know about the process that will lead to the hiring of the next Canadian general manager.
So it seems that the committee that will have to find the right candidate will be a quartet, not a trio. Our colleagues François Gagnon (RDS) and Renaud Lavoie (TVA Sports), who were in Florida for the NHL Governors’ meeting, have indeed indicated that Michael Andlauer would also sit on the selection committee. Andlauer’s name is added to those of Bob Gainey, Jeff Gorton and Geoff Molson.
Andlauer was also part of the decision-making process that led to the hiring of Bergevin in 2012. He is one of the minority owners of the Canadiens, and he is said to be well connected, both in the media and in the NHL, he who sometimes participates in the meeting of governors. He also owned the Hamilton Bulldogs when that franchise was the Canadiens’ school club, until 2015.
Andlauer is based in the Hamilton area, but is originally from Montreal and speaks French very well, we are told.
Note, however, that within this committee, Geoff Molson is the only one of the four to live in Montreal full time. None of the four have French as their mother tongue.