When a player changes teams immediately after winning the Stanley Cup, their commemorative ring is sent to them over the following months. Social networks are crazy about the beautiful moments represented by the unveiling sessions.
But send a ring four years later? It is rarer. In fact, that never happens.
Well, almost never. Jeff Gorton was sacked by the Boston Bruins in June 2007 after 15 years of loyal service, including 8 as an assistant general manager and a few months as interim GM. However, when the Bears lifted the cup in 2011, they made sure Gorton received his ring.
It was he who was behind the selections of Phil Kessel, Milan Lucic and Brad Marchand in the 2006 draft. He too had attracted free agents Zdeno Chara and Marc Savard to Boston. And he, again, who orchestrated the transaction that snatched goalie Tuukka Rask from the Toronto Maple Leafs.
So yes, the Bruins certainly owed him some of their success. We suspect, however, that they would not have had this attention for just anyone.
All people interviewed by Press had only good words for Jeff Gorton, appointed Sunday to the position of executive vice-president of hockey operations for the Montreal Canadiens. A title previously held by Director General Marc Bergevin before being fired.
Two agents, who did not wish to be named, were laudatory to Gorton. This is significant, as agents and CEOs sit across from each other during contract negotiations. He is said to be highly respected within the profession.
“He’s quite a hockey head,” said the first agent. He has a very above-average eye for talent. ”
The second spoke of a calm man, “who does not overreact”, and an honest person, whom one can “speak up”.
“He says it as it is,” adds the first agent.
Recruitment
He acquired this “eye for talent” when he started out in the Bruins hockey department as recruiting director from 1994 to 1999. Years that led to the emergence of PJ Axelsson, Kyle McLaren , Sergei Samsonov and Joe Thornton, all drafted and developed in Boston.
His reign continued as deputy to the CEO or as interim CEO: Nick Boynton, Patrice Bergeron, Mark Stuart, David Krejci, Lucic, Marchand, Kessel…
It was also as a recruiter that he joined the New York Rangers, a few weeks after being dismissed by the Bruins in 2007.
Glen Sather took him under his wing in Manhattan, after a decade of mentoring Harry Sinden in Boston. Quickly, he made him his deputy. And he passed the torch to him in 2015.
His reign as general manager of the Rangers has not been easy. Tough decisions awaited him, including those to part ways with Rick Nash, Ryan McDonagh, Mats Zuccarello and later Henrik Lundqvsit, all popular Broadway players. He has never hidden his intentions to “raze the house to its foundations and start over,” Athletic’s Rick Carpiniello wrote last spring. And it was he who, in 2018, signed “the letter”, a letter sent to season ticket holders to announce the reconstruction of the club. To tell it like it is, again.
Patience is certainly one of its qualities. Developing and closing the transaction that brought Mika Zibanejad to New York from Ottawa in July 2016 took time. “He could have lost patience, say that it will not work and go find another,” illustrates a former colleague, who worked with him at the Rangers.
However, “he remained patient”. “And even when Zibanejad arrived, people were still wondering if he was going to become a player worthy of a fifth overall pick.” Now the Swede is among the most productive centers in the NHL.
Unfortunately for him, Gorton will not have reaped the fruits of his patience in New York. Eagerly, the franchise owners fired him and President John Davidson at the end of last season. And this, while the pool of hopes is overflowing – Alexis Lafrenière, Kappo Kakko, Filip Chytil, K’Andre Miller – and that the quality veterans are numerous: Artemi Panarin, Adam Fox, reigning winner of the Norris trophy, Jacob Trouba… All players attracted to New York by Gorton.
Third reconstruction
Despite a career spanning almost three decades, Jeff Gorton only discovered a third team in Montreal. A third of the “original six”, moreover.
His ex-colleague agrees that the Montreal market is in a class of its own, but that should “not bother him”. “He works hard, he is methodical; he is not a guy who reacts to pressure, ”he sums up.
In front of the members of the media, it is said at ease, endowed with a good sense of humor and self-deprecation. His first job in the NHL, by the way, was in the public relations department for the Bruins. In private, however, it can be cold, even sharp.
An agent also points out that at the Canadian, he will find himself, for the third time, at the head of a team in reconstruction – with or without the label. This same agent also expects many changes in the recruitment and development of players.
However, his career has never taken him to the head of a team in a position to win a championship. Impossible, therefore, to know how he would behave if his team were very close to touching the Cup.
Notice, it’s not like it’s about to happen in Montreal. We therefore expect him to have free rein to do what he can do best. It may take some patience though.
– With the collaboration of Guillaume Lefrançois