A good eye for hockey
FOCUS ON: NHL Montreal native Blair Mackasey was among the Habs’ GM candidates
Blair Mackasey has a great eye for hockey talent and has put together an impressive resumé over the years. He’s a good hockey man ... and a good man, period.
I first got to know Mackasey in the early 1990s when he was coaching the midget Triple-a Lac St. Louis team, leading the Lions to the Air Canada Cup national championship in 1992. Two years later, he displayed his eye for talent as head coach of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League’s Drummondville Voltigeurs when a small forward who was the team’s first-round pick in the midget draft arrived at training camp.
“He was 17 years old and he comes to camp at 147 pounds … God, he looked tiny,” Mackasey recalled when I spoke with him on Thursday. “I think we played six or seven exhibition games and he was just okay. He was kind of feeling his way around … he wasn’t good, he wasn’t bad … he was just trying to figure it all out. I remember at the end of the trainingcamp session saying, ‘Well, he’s going to be a pretty good 19-year-old and should be a real good 20-year-old overage (player), and then first game of the season he went out and got six points and finished with 123 on the year. It was like the red light went on and now it’s time to play.”
That player was Daniel Brière, now with the Philadelphia Flyers and one of the National Hockey League’s elite playoff performers with 108 points (50 goals, 58 assists) in 106 career postseason games.
Brière posted 67-96-163 totals during his second season with Mackasey in Drummondville, but there were still some who wondered if the generously listed 5-foot-10 centre could make the jump to the NHL because of his size.
Mackasey wasn’t one of them. Before the 1996 NHL entry draft, Mackasey left the Voltigeurs to become a scout with the Phoenix Coyotes and he pushed for them to take Brière with one of their two first-round picks that year.
“Two things were obvious when you watched him play (in junior),” Mackasey recalled. “One is he wasn’t very big, and the second thing is he was obviously very skilled. I guess what I sold them on was one, his character, and two, his competitiveness. This is a quality kid. I think people don’t realize how competitive he is. He’s extremely smart and he’s an extremely competitive kid.”
The Coyotes took defenceman Dan Focht with the No. 11 overall pick and then took Brière at No. 24. Six picks before Brière, the Canadiens took centre Matt Higgins at No. 18.
“They had two picks in the first round that year, so it was easy for (the Coyotes) to take a shot at Danny with their second pick, and that’s what they did,” Mackasey recalled. “They certainly did their homework on him.”
The Coyotes traded Brière to Buffalo in March 2003, and that’s where he really blossomed.
“He struggled for a couple of reasons (in Phoenix) … not all his fault,” Mackasey said. “It took him a while to figure it out, and he had a couple of bad injuries there that set him back. But he seemed to get to Buffalo and it all fell into place for him.”
Things have also fallen into place for Mackasey over the years. From 2002 to 2006, the Beaconsfield resident was head scout and then director of player personnel for Hockey Canada, responsible for player evaluation and selections for the national junior and under-18 teams. Canada won two gold and two silver medals at the world junior tournament during that time. For the last six years, Mackasey has been with the Minnesota Wild, now holding the title of director of player personnel.
He is also one of the people Canadiens president Geoff Molson interviewed for the team’s general manager job before giving it to Marc Bergevin on Wednesday.
“Geoff and I had a couple of conversations and interviews, and I don’t really have anything negative to say about the process,” Mackasey, 56, said on Thursday. “It’s not every day you get a chance to interview for the GM job with the Montreal Canadiens, so I was really honoured just to have the opportunity. Obviously disappointed, like a lot of other people, but I like Marc a lot. He’s a solid
“It might take 10 years off your life, though, but it would
be fun doing it.” BLAIR MACKASEY,
ON BEING A CANADIENS GM
guy, he’s a solid hockey guy and he’s a great person, and I think he’ll do a great job.
“Being a Montrealer, it would have been a wonderful opportunity, just like for Berg, to come back after growing up in Montreal and be general manager of the Montreal Canadiens. That doesn’t happen every day.
“I was honoured to interview for it, and I think Berg will do a good job and I wish him all the best, except against Minnesota,” Mackasey added with a laugh.
The bilingual Mackasey has some strong Montreal sports roots. As a teenager, he played defence with the Junior Canadiens in the win- ter and was a first-baseman in the Expos’ minor-league system in the summer, playing on the same team as Gary Carter and Ellis Valentine. Mackasey eventually had to pick a sport and decided on hockey, but he played only one game in the NHL with the Toronto Maple Leafs before a back injury ended his career.
I asked Mackasey if he would still be interested in another job with the Canadiens – maybe something in pro scouting, which has been a weakness – if the team called.
“I’m not unhappy with what I have in Minnesota,” he said, “but obviously if the Montreal Canadiens did approach, I guess I would have to listen. But that would be up to Minnesota to allow me that opportunity. I’m not unhappy where I am.”
Mackasey would have been very happy if he had become the Canadiens’ GM, but he also knows what a tough job it is.
“Obviously, who wouldn’t want to be general manager of the Montreal Canadiens,” he said. Then he added with a laugh: “It might take 10 years off your life, though, but it would be fun doing it.” Find out what Blair Mackasey has to say about former baseball teammates Gary Carter and Ellis Valentine on Stu Cowan’s blog at montrealgazette.com/stuonsports