The choice of the Canadiens' next General Manager (2)

I wrote in January I think that I wanted Julien BriseBois as the next GM of the Canadiens. I thought we should hire a bright whiz-kid instead of a recycled GM from another organization. His résumé was enough to convince me on the first read.

Having said that, I haven’t met any of these candidates. Many are quite impressive in their background and accomplishments so far. I would be comfortable with Marc Bergevin, Claude Loiselle, Vincent Damphousse, a couple others as well. I have to trust that the hiring committee will make the right decision. With all the crap we’re only hearing now about Mr. Gauthier, the situation at the New Forum can only improve. Right?

The only candidate I’m dead set against is Pierre McGuire. I don’t understand who would consider him a serious candidate when compared to the others, his résumé is very weak. It’s like when you’re choosing a Chef, you will interview Chefs or Sous-Chefs from other locations or your own Sous-Chefs. You’re not going to hire the guy who turned out to be a mediocre chef 15 years ago and who went on to be a sommelier. Nothing wrong with being a sommelier, it’s an important part of the whole dining experience, but once you’ve gone down that career path it’s hard to jump from there and land at the top of the profession of another career path. You kind of have to backtrack and pay your dues as a Chef de partie somewhere and work your way up again. Along the lines of that analogy, I understand that Mr. McGuire doesn’t want to go back to being a drone in a front office, that he wants to get the top job, since he’s doing well where he’s at now, but that’s the decision he has to make. If he’s trapped by his current salary, well that’s the bed he’s made. We all make decisions in life. If he doesn’t want to prove himself in a junior role, I don’t understand why it would be incumbent upon us to take a leap of faith and trust him with the keys to our franchise. There are other more qualified pilots with more certification, who haven’t been passed over for similar posts repeatedly.