There is an astonishing moment in Chosen One, the brand new documentary about Alexandre Daigle. This moment comes when Daigle, with his usual candor, admits that he reached the peak of his potential… in the midget ranks, at the age of 15.
“I remember, the next match, I didn’t want to go and play. But the coach told me, if you hadn’t scored your 50e goal, would you like to play? Sure…but I didn’t feel the same. »
In front of us, in the restaurant of a chic hotel in the city center, it is this Alexandre Daigle who is sitting at the table: frank, laughing, humble. Regrets ? Not so much, as we can see in the documentary in question, recently available on Prime Video.
The title, obviously, refers to this role of savior that was imposed on him quite quickly in the minutes when the Ottawa Senators called his name at the very first place in the 1993 draft. A role perhaps a little too much immense, ultimately, for a young man who believed that nothing was going to be able to beat this 50e goal obtained three years earlier in the midget ranks.
I was crying on the bench during that match… It was as if something had happened. We talk a lot about mental health today, and that was a bit like that. At that age, you’re vulnerable. My mother told my agent Pierre Lacroix. But at the time, it was frowned upon. I didn’t find that fire afterwards…
Alexandre Daigle
Many in the hockey world will have wondered what the Quebec striker could have accomplished if he had been driven by a greater desire to win. He left the NHL ice for good after 2005-2006, with a total of 129 goals and 198 assists for a total of 327 points in 616 games. Respectable numbers, certainly, but not respectable enough for those who saw him as the next immortal.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Alexandre Daigle, first overall pick in the 1993 NHL draft, surrounded by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and then-Ottawa Senators president Randy Sexton
Deep down, this is perhaps what he has always been criticized for: for not having been the superman we expected. He smiles when we talk to him about it… “To become super good at sport, at any sport, it has to be the only thing in your life. You just have to think about that.
“I wasn’t making the extra effort,” he adds. You always have to work on your game, even in the summer. Now it’s like that, but in my years it wasn’t the same; we arrived at camp at the end of July, beginning of August, to get back in shape. The club gave me a training schedule, and that’s what I did. No more. There are many things like that that I didn’t know about… but even if I had known, I’m not sure I would have made those efforts anyway. »
There is also that the expectations are not the same with an expansion club, which the Senators still were when he arrived, the second year of the club’s existence. These Senators were not winning – 14-61-9 record in 84 games in 1993-1994 – and it was Daigle, often, who was singled out for these failures, because it was he who had to be the Savior.
Sometimes the criticism turned into much more serious accusations. “There were things that came out, and it wasn’t true…”
Like what ?
Like the drug stories… A columnist in Ottawa wrote that I was taking drugs. I’ve never taken drugs. For my parents, my mother especially… it was quite the worst affair. The rest was gossip, guesswork.
Alexandre Daigle
To add to all that, in 1993, Alexandre Daigle seemed like a free electron in the very conservative world of hockey. With his ads – especially those for the sports card manufacturer Score, where he is seen as a nurse, among others –, his big contract of $12.2 million over five years, and his number 91, he was perhaps too far ahead on his time.
PHOTO ROBERT GALBRAITH, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
Alexandre Daigle in front of Canadian goalkeeper Jocelyn Thibault, in March 1997
“I always wore number 8, but they gave me 91 in junior because I was the first choice (of the Victoriaville Tigres). In pro, I continued with that number, but that’s another matter that I should have changed. Back in the day, almost no one wore high numbers like that, and later Pierre Gauthier came to me and said “Alex, I think it would be a good idea for you to change your number”. That’s how it was, you had to fit the mold. Today, the guys have become brands, they are on Instagram, it’s well seen now. But 30 years ago…”
He says Senators fans were still fair to him. Boos? Not much. “We made the playoffs in my last two seasons in Ottawa, I had my best year with them in 1996-1997, and then I was traded… so they didn’t have time to boo me! »
The suitcases
After five seasons in Ottawa, Daigle went to see the country: Philadelphia, Tampa, New York and the Rangers, Pittsburgh, and then finally to Minnesota with Jacques Lemaire’s Wild.
He has less fond memories of the Flyers and coach Roger Neilson, who wanted to make him a defensive player, but he has excellent memories of Lemaire’s Wild.
“With the Flyers, I didn’t realize it at the time, but when you’re in the National League, you have to know what you can bring. Where do you fit into the team? It’s the famous chair… I had marked my whole life and I thought I was going to have to mark my whole life. But maybe not. »
PHOTO BERNARD BRAULT, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Alexandre Daigle in 2003, in the Minnesota Wild uniform
“Jacques Lemaire, people don’t know him much. He’s a guy who doesn’t talk, but when he leaves, he’s going to tell you exactly what he wants from you. He never shouted, but if you didn’t do what you had to do, you missed a presence. Then you could dry off on the bench, and then, if it still didn’t work, you found yourself eating popcorn up in the press box. It was clear with him. In my first season with the Wild, I finished as the club’s leading scorer…”
After the second season in Minnesota, Daigle decided to see even more countries, and this time, it was in Switzerland that he left his bag and his sticks before finishing his career. “A very good decision and what’s more, we won two championships in four years! »
And now what’s left of all this? He has another life left, far from the spotlight, at 48, which obviously suits him very well.
Between the time spent managing his son in the pee-wee ranks at Sainte-Julie, or the time spent as a television producer, we feel that the past matters much less than the future.
We feel that the page has been turned, but that there remains another story to write. That of the rest of his life.
“Finally, I played what, 14 years of professional hockey? I didn’t have any major injuries, I didn’t have a concussion. I’m married, with three healthy children… it’s not that bad! »
Alexandre Daigle in brief
- Born in Montreal on February 7, 1975
- 1er 1993 draft pick by the Ottawa Senators
- 129 goals and 198 assists in 616 NHL games
- Author of a season of 137 points in 53 games in 1992-1993 with the Victoriaville Tigres (LHJMQ)
- His best seasons: 20 goals and 31 assists in 84 games with the Senators in 1993-1994 26 goals and 25 assists in 82 games with the Senators in 1996-1997 20 goals and 31 assists in 78 games with the Wild in 2003- 2004