Montreal Canadiens: Takeaways From Jeff Gorton’s First Press Conference

The Montreal Canadiens made some major changes in their front office last weekend and we finally got to hear from the new guy.

Jeff Gorton is in town now, taking on the newly formed Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations role. He is filling a front office void that was opened by Marc Bergevin’s firing last weekend.

Gorton opened the interview with a prepared statement in French, and though his accent is a bit off, the effort is appreciated by the fan base. Much has been made of the language criteria and though Gorton does not speak French, he knows the importance of having French speakers in the front office and he committed to trying to learn the language as much as he can in the coming years.

That was a nice way to start out the media availability, and there were a couple of comical parts such as when he was asked if he had heard Patrick Roy’s pleas to become the team’s next general manager and Gorton declared that yes, he has heard of Patrick Roy before.

He also mentioned that growing up in Boston, he was in fact a Bruins fan and he remembers all the battles between the two original six rivals over the years and having his heart ripped out all those times the Canadiens beat the Bruins in the postseason.

Being from Massachusetts, and taking over a prominent job with the Habs comes with a change of allegiances. Obviously Gorton is on board with the Canadiens success now, but it was nice touch for him to give a nod to the great teams of the past in Montreal and talk about how frustrating it was to cheer for Boston when they had to face those Canadiens teams over the years.

Gorton held his cards fairly close to his vest during the availability, several times stating he just arrived and will be in sort of an information gathering phase before making any big decisions.

He did mention a couple of key points that are of interest to Habs fans.

First, he mentioned a couple of times that he might look for an outside the box candidate for the general manager job and someone who complements him well. That’s interesting, but it only tells us a story if we know exactly what areas Gorton feels he needs to be complemented in by his new GM.

He said the candidate should have great knowledge of hockey (obviously) and an understanding of how the business works. He mentioned that it could be a player or an agent because he was not a player or an agent so that would complement him well. That’s an interesting point for him to throw out there. Of course, Mathieu Darche and Daniel Briere are already being mentioned as candidates so the former player box could easily be checked there but we will have to wait and see.

On improving player development, Gorton mentioned that the team will be in regular contact with players starting as soon as they are drafted or enter into the organization. He said it is not just about checking in but analyzing their games and sending feedback about on-ice performance as well as off-ice things like training, working out and nutrition.

On building an analytics staff, Gorton said the team has a few good people in that department but needs to add more. The way the game is going analytics staffs need to be bigger and bigger and the Canadiens have the budget to build the biggest off-ice staff so why wouldn’t they to get an advantage?

As for building out the rest of his staff, Gorton said he would take his time to find the right general manager for the job. He was asked if he thought he would have one in place before Christmas and he suggested it might take a little longer. It would make sense to have one in place before the trade deadline, but that is not until March 21 this year so there is lots of time.

On the coaching staff, Gorton said that the head coach Dominique Ducharme would be in place for the entire season.