Jean-françois Houle has bleublanc-rouge in his DNA
Rocket coach Jean-françois, son of Réjean, is running the Canadiens' rookie camp
Jean-françois Houle knows what it's like to be a player at a Canadiens rookie camp.
The Canadiens selected Houle in the fourth round (99th overall) of the 1993 NHL Draft, which was held 17 days after the team had won the Stanley Cup. The Ottawa Senators took Alexandre Daigle with the No. 1 overall pick that year when the draft was held at the old Colisée in Quebec City.
“I do remember quite a bit,” Houle said Friday when asked about his first Canadiens rookie camp. “I remember being really nervous. I also remember that I needed to improve in a lot of ways . ... ”
Houle is the new head coach of the AHL'S Laval Rocket and is running the Canadiens' rookie camp, which started Tuesday at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard. The Canadiens' rookies will play their first game Saturday when they travel to Ottawa to play the Senators' rookies. The game starts at 4 p.m. and can be watched on the Senators' Youtube channel.
“I'm sure there are some guys are saying: `Wow, this guy's really good compared to me,' ” Houle said about the rookies at this year's camp.
“You compare yourself to a lot of players. That's what you do, especially in the first practice. You're sitting in line and you're comparing yourself and you're looking at others, at drafted players and invitees. You're trying to find a way to see if you could do something to impress the coaches. That's just how players are built and I'm sure it's the same today ... that hasn't changed at all. Players look at each other and evaluate themselves.”
Houle recalled skating for two or three days with the other Canadiens rookies at the Forum after he got drafted before taking part in the main training camp, which he says is a real eye-opener for young players.
“The main camp's even worse,” he said. “You got Carey Price on the ice ... you got (Brendan) Gallagher on the ice. So it opens your eyes for a young guy and you don't want to make a mistake. A lot of times, you'll get in the back of the line to make sure you get the drill properly. It's pretty nerve-racking. It's quite the experience, actually.”
As a player, Houle was part of the Lac St. Louis Lions team that won the Air Canada Cup national midget championship in 1992. Houle posted 32-43-75 totals in 40 games that season before going to Northwood School in Lake Placid, N.Y., the following season, where he had 40-45-85 totals in 36 games. Houle, who was a five-foot-eight, 167-pound winger when the Canadiens drafted him, then spent four seasons at Clarkson University, posting 21-37-58 totals in 37 games during his final year. After that, he bounced around the minor leagues for five years, including one full season with the AHL'S Fredericton Canadiens, before getting into coaching.
The 46-year-old spent seven seasons as an assistant coach at Clarkson, followed by two seasons as head coach of the QMJHL'S Lewiston MAINEIACS and three seasons as head coach of the Blainville-boisbriand Armada. He then spent one season as head coach of the ECHL'S Bakersfield Condors, followed by six seasons as an assistant coach with the Condors in the AHL as the Edmonton Oilers' farm team,
before getting the job in Laval.
“I never expected to be drafted that high,” Houle said after the Canadiens selected him in 1993. “San Jose had talked to me, but I thought that it would be a matter of being drafted by somebody in the eighth or ninth round.”
Houle's father, Réjean, was the No. 1 overall pick by the Canadiens at the 1969 NHL Draft and won five Stanley Cups during his 11 seasons in Montreal. He later became GM of the Canadiens and is president of the team's alumni.
“He's small,” Réjean said after the Canadiens drafted his son in 1993. “But we'll see what happens. I've never pushed him in hockey; I just want him to have fun.
“It was different in my day,” Réjean added about the draft. “The year I was drafted, it wasn't such a big deal. It was at the Queen Elizabeth Hotel and we weren't allowed in the room. I was waiting in the hall when I got the news.”
The younger Houle has fond memories of growing up around the Canadiens. He said his favourite one was sitting in the stands watching practices at the Forum with the children of other Canadiens players while former trainers Gaétan Lefebvre and Eddie Palchak would take care of them.
“After the practice, we would get to put our skates on,” Houle recalled. “So it was a lot of fun, it was a lot of kids back then and those are great memories of skating at the Montreal Forum and looking up at all the banners and just enjoying being on the ice.”
Houle never got to play a game in the NHL, but he still gets to put his skates on in his new job.