There will be a new face from Quebec in the brotherhood of American League coaches: that of Stéphane Julien, hired as an assistant with the Grand Rapids Griffins.
Julien did not however expect to end up this way in the Detroit Red Wings school club. He had indeed applied to become a head coach. He and Dan Watson were the final two contenders in wrestling. “I was pretty sure I got the job,” admits Julien.
Except that Watson was the lucky one. And this is where the story takes an unexpected turn. “Humbly, the next day, Dan asked me if I wanted to come as an assistant. It takes a lot of humility to do that! I didn’t see it coming,” says Julien.
Our man is therefore leaving the Sherbrooke Phœnix, the only team where he has coached thus far, with the exception of his short-term assignments with Hockey Canada. “I had good conditions in Sherbrooke, we had built a good program,” he says proudly.
But I was coming to another stage, with our successes in recent years in Sherbrooke, the gold medal with Team Canada in Hlinka-Gretzky and the U20. In hockey, when the window is open, when you have success, you have to take advantage of it.
Stephane Julien
Julien had therefore embarked on four other hiring processes with the pros, but not in Grand Rapids. The others were “different, colder”.
Conversely, the Red Wings of the 2000s (Steve Yzerman, Kris Draper, Dan Cleary and Nicklas Lidström), in addition to Shawn Horcoff, the only one of the lot who never played in Detroit, exuded something that appealed to Julian. They are the ones who took the first steps.
“They want to develop the coaches internally,” he explains. They had several coaches who moved up to the NHL after going through Grand Rapids. I also like the framework they want to give us. »
The simple fact that the Wings wanted to hire him spoke volumes to Julien. The latter has indeed very limited experience of North American professional hockey. As a player, once his junior career was over, he played only one season in the ECHL, in 1996-1997, before going into exile in Europe, where he played from 1997 to 2012. Since his return to America, he has only worked for Sherbrooke.
“In the interviews, it caught on a bit. The teams recognized my coaching experience, but found that I had no professional experience in North America. »
And with Grand Rapids, was it catching? “If so, I didn’t feel it. But they trusted a guy, Dan, who had been with their ECHL branch for years. For me, it shows that they really trust their own world. »
Duty done
Julien leaves Sherbrooke with the feeling of accomplishment. The Phoenix have reached the semi-finals the past two seasons, and were the best team of the three Canadian junior circuits when the pandemic broke out in March 2020.
Individually, four of his proteges, including Canadian prospect Joshua Roy, have been selected in the last four drafts. This year, it will be the turn of Ethan Gauthier, a potential choice of 1er round, not to mention the possibility that 20-year-old Milo Roelens will also be selected.
“When I arrived, we were having difficulty. What I liked the most was having developed a solid program, having developed players who were looking for themselves elsewhere, like Roy and [Cole] Huckins.
“That is the culture that Jocelyn [Thibault] and I went up. It’s a feeling of belonging to Sherbrooke. Agents call us to place their players with us. It’s okay to leave the keys with someone else. »