New Vancouver Canucks assistant general manager Emilie Castonguay has revealed that the idea of having a top job with the Canucks is high on her “vision board.”
It might seem like a curious anecdote to local journalists, or a sign that they were dealing with a highly motivated, organized person who pays a lot of attention to detail. But in reality, it was much more than that.
When Castonguay switched from English to French during her Zoom conference, what’s on her vision board suddenly became clear.
It was heavy with meaning and deeply human. It bore the mark of mourning, of love and of this invisible power which sometimes provokes what seems to us to be serendipity.
“My sister died about 10 years ago in a somewhat tragic way,” Castonguay said. In one of the last conversations we had in her life, she told me that I would one day lead the Vancouver Canucks.
“Actually, that was the last conversation I had with her. Let the Canucks call me…it was quite an emotional moment for me. This is one of the reasons why I had to consider and listen to what Jim Rutherford had to say to me. For the Vancouver aspect, he didn’t really have to convince me, but I felt that it was a bit the universe that brought me there. »
Sometimes it feels like things happen for a specific reason. We make connections, the signs multiply, and suddenly we have the feeling of being in the right place at the right time.
However, nothing was predetermined in Castonguay’s journey.
She grew up in Quebec, where she played high level hockey with the boys. An excellent defensive forward, she was captain of her team in the NCAA. She earned a degree in finance as a student athlete, then went to law school before achieving notoriety as a first woman to represent the interests of a first choice overall in the repechage NHL.
“I never really thought about it,” Castonguay said of making history as the first female assistant general manager in the Canucks organization.
“I grew up playing hockey and watching hockey, just like them. I played hockey with the boys when I was young, then later with the girls. I had a scholarship to play college hockey in the first division, I studied business administration when I was in the United States, then I got a law degree. I never really thought about genres during my career. I saw things in a non-binary way. I wanted to work in the hockey world and I wanted my job to have real meaning to me.
“I never said to myself, ‘There are only men in this industry, I can’t work in this.’ I went for it and gathered as much knowledge as possible to get to where I am today. I just worked hard. »
And his work earned him a solid reputation. Castonguay is recognized as an agent who fiercely defends her clients, an intelligent woman who always pays a lot of attention to detail, whether it’s pre-draft interviews, playing time in the QMJHL or negotiating contracts.
Agents often have complex reputations in this industry, especially those working mostly in the lower levels of the NHL. Hockey is a contact sport, on and off the ice, and it can sometimes be difficult to defend the interests of individual players.
As an agent, sometimes you need to request a transaction. Sometimes you have to retaliate fiercely to claim more playing time for one of your clients, better opportunities, or a bigger salary.
To be successful, you have to be a shark. And Castonguay had a lot of success.
It’s one of the reasons why the Canucks were so happy to have his experience and add his perspective to others in the organization. It’s not for nothing that NHL teams are increasingly turning to former players’ agents to fill managerial positions. Just think of Bill Zito in Florida or Kent Hughes in Montreal. This typical combination of industry experience and connections, success in higher education, and the ability to understand today’s professional athletes makes agents like Castonguay highly sought after by operations departments. NHL team hockey.
Vancouver’s revamped management needed an enforcer, a lawyer who would also be a skilled negotiator and who could help the club not only meet the salary cap, but manipulate it in its favor. As a member of the Canucks hockey operations team, Castonguay will be involved in all aspects of hockey-related management, but his main responsibilities will be related to payroll. Judging by her experience and reputation, she has what it takes to excel in her new role.
Of course, since she has represented players, including Antoine Roussel, Cédric Paquette, Mathieu and Pierre-Olivier Joseph as well as Alexis Lafrenière, she comes with a unique mentality of prioritizing players, a mentality that can be applied certain aspects of player development and recruitment.
“For me, one of the most important elements – and I associate that with the management team in Vancouver – is player development. They need to be given access to the right resources and the right people to become the best version of themselves. »
“I want to have an influence on a human level in this organization. It’s something I tend to do and it’s important to me. I sincerely believe that the better the members of a team feel, the better the group will perform. It’s important to take the pulse of the team… You have to put the players in the right conditions so that they can develop as players and as representatives of the Vancouver Canucks and so that we can build a champion team. We must bet on this type of constancy and culture. »
Castonguay spoke about his experience, his vision board and his admiration for what Canucks president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford and team owner have in mind for the organization. Then, she also returned – very moved – to the conversations she had had with her former clients to tell them that she would now be part of the management of the Canucks.
“She considers each situation in a very human way,” said Olivier Fortier, Castonguay’s colleague at the Momentum Hockey agency. She has a good relationship with the players.
“She humanizes all aspects of her professional life. She’s a good negotiator, she knows what she wants, and she usually gets it. She can’t accept being told no, and that’s why she’s with the Canucks now. She is always polite, she has the right words, she is prepared, but she also manages to reach people, even the CEOs with whom she negotiates, she manages to bond with them very quickly. It will take her far, especially in 2022; this is the direction in which professional sports should be going. »
Fortier adds that in her negotiations, Castonguay is direct and timely, that she relies heavily on feedback and that she does not let go, all without being abrupt.
“I remember one of his first discussions with a team, laughs Fortier. When the GM said something she disagreed with, she immediately picked up the ball and said, “I disagree with that, and I’ll tell you why,” and then it went away. was tock, tock, tock! She wasn’t scared, and there was no, “Okay, I get it, I’ll get back to you.” She said what she felt, without (hesitation)…
“She’s tough, in the sense that she never gives up. She prepares herself and she does not accept being told no; she will call back two days later. She never stops, that’s why she’s tough. It’s not a character; She’s a solid negotiator, because she’s not going to accept an agreement that falls short of her expectations just to settle a file. She will fight until the end. »
By making Castonguay the second assistant general manager of the Canucks, Rutherford further asserted her mark on the organization.
Castonguay is a bilingual manager, an experienced negotiator who has the necessary skills to be a specialist in salary cap management and who has an in-depth knowledge of talent at the amateur level in a territory – Quebec – which produces many NHL players. and on which the Canucks could likely benefit from improved coverage.
She joins longtime director of player personnel Derek Clancey in what is expected to be three assistant general managers. Indeed, the organization is expected to hire another deputy perhaps as early as this week, in addition to choosing its general manager.
Rutherford is building a strong and diverse team. In fact, the club – which hired Rachel Doerrie last week in a data analyst role, just before hiring Castonguay on Monday – looks set to add another woman to its hockey operations team. Rutherford would have another candidate in his sights and he will try to integrate her into the team a little later.
The idea of setting up a new kind of management germinated in Rutherford’s mind about ten years ago. However, he had inherited a club in Pittsburgh that claimed top honors every year and a hockey operations department that included several future general managers. He was never able to work from a blank page, start fresh and build a completely different structure. This opportunity is offered to him with the Canucks, and he takes full advantage of it.
First and foremost, Castonguay was not hired because she is a woman or because we wanted to create a hockey operations department that focused on diversity. It was a question of hiring an experienced person who would present an expertise which the direction of the Canucks badly needed, especially after the dismissals which shook the organization at the beginning of December.
Hiring Castonguay really means the Canucks have found the right person to fill the position. But sometimes in a lifetime it feels like nothing happens for nothing.
(Photo: Courtesy of Momentum Hockey)