The Canadian | New boss, new culture

A team that does a big cleaning usually takes the opportunity to change its approach as well.

Guillaume Lefrançois
Press

Take the Canadian of 2012. The former CEO was Pierre Gauthier, graduate of American universities, recruiter by profession, socially discreet, built like Billy Tellier, who called his players “Monsieur”. His replacement: Marc Bergevin, a guy from Pointe-St-Charles, 1000 games in the NHL, the biceps of Dino Bravo, endowed with a good sense of humor, who spoke of “Donnie” Meehan, of “Kenny” Holland and “Gally”, “Eddie” and “Ty” (in order, Brendan Gallagher, Joel Edmundson, and Tyler Toffoli).

The Bergevin era is now behind us, and the arrival of Jeff Gorton will visibly bring about a cultural change in certain aspects. The Canadiens’ new vice-president of hockey operations announced his colors in his second response to his 30-minute press briefing on Friday.

On speed, Bergevin has evolved during his tenure. He had his periods where he valued her (when he acquired Jeff Petry, Paul Byron and Torrey Mitchell, for example), but in recent years he leaned much more on heaviness, including Edmundson, Ben Chiarot and Eric Staal.

Player development was clearly one of Bergevin’s weaknesses, but that’s another thing to say that it was the result of a lack of interest on his part. It was enough to interview the hopes to see that they were in regular contact with members of the organization, mainly Rob Ramage and Francis Bouillon, but also Martin Lapointe and Scott Mellanby.

“It is important to be in contact with [nos espoirs] daily, to talk about their game, their diet, detailed Gorton. You have to look at what you can offer them. As long as we draft them to the NHL, we can do a better job of taking these kids and making them men. ”

We can guess that Bergevin could have made the same remarks. However, Gorton seems determined to invest more resources in it.

Little picking

But the tip on advanced statistics was particularly refreshing for anyone who has followed Bergevin’s reign closely. Whenever the former GM mentioned it, he was quick to add a “but”. Take what he said to Brother Alexandre Pratt in 2019.

“During the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, you send drones. They’re going to take pictures. Give you information. But at the end of the day, it also takes your boots on the court. In hockey, we go [étudier] statistics. But it also takes scouts, ”he explained.

Under Bergevin, the collection of advanced statistics was somewhat wobbly. Internally, we collected some data, mainly scoring chances and individual puck battles. The job was done by the coach responsible for the video, Mario Leblanc. Moreover, we relied on Sportlogiq, but the Canadian is only one of the many teams with which this Montreal firm does business.

For some time, however, the team had dealt with an external consultant, Matt Pfeffer, whose contract was not renewed in the summer of 2016. A few days before the end of his mandate, Pfeffer had delivered a strong plea in the defense of PK Subban, a plea that was not accepted since Subban was traded for Shea Weber.

However, Bergevin was not completely wrong. It has been said over and over again: its professional recruiting department has been able to spot underused players over the years, from Byron to Chiarot, including Tomas Tatar. But when it was he who analyzed, instinct quickly took over. “After a few” shifts “, I can tell you the strengths and weaknesses of a player,” he said in the interview cited above.

A history

Gorton’s profile is the opposite of Bergevin’s. Described as calm and collected, he has never played hockey at a high level. His first entry into the NHL came from a public relations internship with the Boston Bruins in 1992.

“He was comfortable with computers, which was rare at the time. Harry Sinden realized he had someone special in his hands, ”a source consulted for a portrait of Gorton told us last week.

Reporters were limited to one question each at Friday’s conference, so it was difficult to go into detail. On the other hand, last August, the Bostonian was invited to the podcast Cam & Strick, where he had given a better idea of ​​his contribution to the Bruins. Gathering information was clearly at the heart of his approach.

“I started making video, as well as statistics for our players who were going to salary arbitration. The scouts brought me with them, I filmed the matches, I analyzed them and we set up a video library, ”he explained.

At a press briefing, Gorton was revived on the use of deeper data. “We need to better build our advanced statistics department, to modernize it. I believe in these statistics. Seeing where hockey is going is important information. So I would like to assemble a team to tackle it. Such an approach would go hand in hand with what he had developed at the Rangers, where he had established a house team of four people dedicated to data collection.

This is just the start. We do not yet know the group that will surround the new hockey boss, starting with his general manager. He must also appoint a new chief recruiter; it may be necessary to wait a few months before knowing his identity, since he refused to bring forward a deadline for his hiring.

When he took office, Bergevin had retained the services of Trevor Timmins, and even offered him a promotion as an assistant to the general manager during his tenure.

There too, there will be a change of culture.