Montreal Canadiens: The Only Three General Manager Candidates That Make Any Sense

Mathieu Darche

Another former Canadiens player has certainly had his name thrown out there as a potential replacement for Bergevin. Darche was more of a depth player than Thibault who was the starting goaltender for a few years, but the 45 year old is no stranger to the Montreal area.

Darche is from Montreal and attended university in the city at McGill. He played four seasons of hockey there and was named Canada’s top athlete after scoring 62 points in 26 games. He played 250 career NHL games and 149 of them were with the Canadiens in the final three years of his career.

Since retiring from playing hockey, Darche has put his Commerce degree in marketing and international business to use by working for Delmar in Montreal as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He left there in 2019 to work for the Tampa Bay Lightning as the team’s Director of Hockey Operations.

In his only two full seasons with the Lightning, the team has won the Stanley Cup each year. He is working just underneath Julien BriseBois, and would take on a similar role, though with a more prestigious title, if hired to join the Canadiens front office.

Like Thibault, Darche would need to do some learning on the job but that would be okay under Gorton who has plenty of experience in NHL front offices. There is no question Darche has the intellect and the education to be a general manager. He also has the hands on experience from working with the Lightning for three seasons now.

Darche is an up and comer with some experience, but with a veteran like Gorton already in place, hiring someone with a more analytical approach like Darche makes a lot of sense.