Cowan: Mathieu Darche's start with Montreal business paves way to Islanders GM post
Montreal Canadiens
By
When the Canadiens were looking for a new general manager three years ago, Mathieu Darche would have been my choice.
Instead, Jeff Gorton — the executive vice-president of hockey operations — decided to hire former player agent Kent Hughes, who has done a very impressive job getting the Canadiens into the playoffs this season in Year 3 of a full rebuilding process.
I figured the time would eventually come for Darche to land a GM job in the NHL and that time came Friday, when the New York Islanders hired the 48-year-old Montreal native as their new GM and executive vice-president, replacing Lou Lamoriello.
Darche has certainly paid his dues — and nothing has come easy for him.
The Islanders made a smart decision.
Darche, a forward, played four seasons at McGill University, where he earned a commerce degree, majoring in marketing and international business. He wasn't selected at the NHL draft, but his desire and work ethic resulted in him playing 250 games in the NHL, including 149 with the Canadiens, before retiring after the 2011-12 season. He also played 552 AHL games and won the Calder Cup in 2004 with the Milwaukee Admirals.
After retiring, Darche was part of the NHLPA's negotiating team during the 2012-13 NHL lockout. He was hoping to land a job in hockey management, but realized those jobs were limited. Meeting Mike Wagen — the senior vice-president and owner of Delmar International Inc., a global freight-forwarding and customs brokerage giant — at the 2013 Cummings Centre Sports Celebrity Breakfast led to the next step on Darche's road to the Islanders.
'He came to this event,' Wagen said when asked about Darche at Sunday's Cummings Centre Sports Celebrity Dinner, of which he was co-chair, along with Bram Naimer. 'He was looking for a job. I was very hesitant because he didn't want a PR job. He really, really wanted to get in the business world after participating in the CBA and everything else.'
Donald Fehr, who was the NHLPA's executive director at the time, was honoured as the Sports Personality of the Year at the 2013 Cummings Centre event.
'I said: 'Donald, why don't you hire Mathieu?' ' Wagen recalled asking Fehr. 'He said: 'Mike, I don't have room for him, but if you're smart you should hire him.' '
Wagen was reluctant at first, but ended up hiring Darche as vice-president of sales and marketing in Canada.
'I had four or five interviews with him and I was skeptical because I knew I'd have to mentor him and I'm very picky about who I did that with,' Wagen said. 'But a couple of things he said to me at the end convinced me to hire him. He had moved his family around to nine different cities, three countries, and he just wanted stability. He's really down-to-earth. So I took a chance.'
Darche kept his job at Delmar for six years before Tampa Bay Lightning GM Julien BriseBois — another McGill graduate — hired him as director of hockey operations and later promoted him to assistant GM. When Darche signed his first one-way NHL contract with Montreal at age 33, it was BriseBois who negotiated it in his role then as the Canadiens' vice-president of hockey operations.
BriseBois and Darche built Lightning teams that won back-to-back Stanley Cups in 2020 and 2021.
'I learned a lot when I was at Delmar that helps me in this job,' Darche said during a one-on-one interview I had with him in 2020, when the Canadiens were in Tampa. 'Management skills ... I was in management for six years, even if it was outside of hockey, you learn with it. I got to combine the business side of it, which I always enjoyed. That's why I studied marketing and business at McGill.'
Wagen said when Darche was at Delmar, he turned down a more lucrative TV offer from Sportsnet, saying he wouldn't leave unless he was offered a job in hockey management.
'When Julien came, that was in his blood,' Wagen said. 'When he walked into my office, he was in tears — he didn't sleep the night before — because he was really part of our family at that point. I told him that the only thing that will disappoint me is if you're not general manager of the Canadiens in five years.'
That almost happened, with Darche being one of the finalists for the Canadiens job before it went to Hughes.
Wagen is confident Darche will succeed with the Islanders, just like he did at Delmar.
'Mathieu has the business acumen, he knows hockey and one-on-one he's a magnet,' Wagen said. 'The only one I ever saw better than him was Guy Lafleur. If he doesn't make it (with the Islanders) I'd eat my hat. He could sit in any boardroom. He just had an edge over everybody because people liked him and people like to do business with people they like — all things being equal.
'What's really, really impressive is they didn't just give him the GM job,' Wagen added. 'They made him vice-president and there is no president. They gave him the ball. So he must have impressed them.'
With good reason.
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