When Danièle Sauvageau speaks of the “pinnacle” of finally creating a professional league allowing women to earn a living with hockey, she does not throw this word out at random.
For almost 30 years, she has seen players and coaches fight to defend their legitimacy and that of their sport. Including her: as surprising as it may seem, the one who has just been named general manager of the Montreal team in the new Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF) lands her first full-time job with a team .
When she became the first woman to appear behind the bench of a Canadian junior team in 2000, and again when she led Canada to gold at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, she led along with a career as a police officer.
It is therefore several dreams that Sauvageau is touching these days. That of a strong league; that of a team in Montreal; and that of a proper management role.
Never, she confided on Friday by videoconference, she will never forget the phone call which confirmed to her, a few days ago, her appointment as general manager of the nascent club of the metropolis. It was Jayna Hefford, who played under him with the national team and who now holds the position of vice-president of hockey operations for the LPHF, who gave him the news. Since then, the new DG admits to floating on a kind of cloud.
“I can’t describe how I feel in words,” she said. I feel proud, privileged. »
It would be pretentious to say that the function was his. But Danièle Sauvageau certainly presented an essential candidacy. For two decades, she has been a sage of women’s hockey in the country. She is also the one who set up the 21.02 High Performance Center, a training site located in the Verdun auditorium and towards which national team players have converged in recent years. The organization also provides resources for women’s teams of all calibers. A unique model.
The administrator does not hide it: at the base of the Center 21.02, whose name refers to the date of the Olympic triumph of 2002, there was the idea of supporting a Montreal team in a league to be created. However, “for the players, it’s good to train daily, but they have to play,” said Ms. Sauvageau. This is what will happen from next January, when the first matches of the LPHF will be played.
The DG will also relinquish its functions as manager of the Center; on the one hand to devote himself full-time to his new team, and on the other hand to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, while the formation will probably train in Verdun. It shouldn’t come as a surprise either that local games are also presented there.
Danièle Sauvageau nevertheless retains her role as general manager of the Carabins of the University of Montreal which, despite its wording, represents above all a mandate of support and mentoring for the program that she helped to set up.
The LPHF presented on Friday the four general managers and two general managers who take the reins of the six formations of the new circuit. Perhaps the most surprising name is that of Pascal Daoust, who becomes boss in New York, after being the GM of the Val-d’Or Foreurs from 2016 to 2023. Gina Kingsbury (Toronto), Michelle Marmer (Boston), Natalie Darwitz (Minnesota) and Michael Hirshfield (Ottawa) complete the list.
Mere minutes after the long virtual press meeting, the free agency market opened up. Each team now has 10 days to agree up to three players, pending the September 18 expansion draft.
We could therefore know very quickly where the largest stars on the planet will end up.
The most popular player on the market will certainly be forward Marie-Philip Poulin. Without promising anything, Danièle Sauvageau said she was “confident” to get along with the captain of the national team. We can assume that Ann-Renée Desbiens, considered the best goalkeeper on the planet, will receive a phone call quickly.
In Montreal, as in the other LPHF markets, everything still needs to be built. No club has a name yet, let alone a logo. Sauvageau isn’t ruling out resurrecting the Canadian women’s name, though she isn’t sure if it’s even possible to do so. “We’ll see over the next few days, the next few weeks, the next few months,” she said, cautiously. The identity of whoever will take on the role of head coach will also be revealed shortly, we understand. This person has already been chosen, said the DG, without opening his game.
Rather than getting lost in the details, Danièle Sauvageau prefers to rejoice in the “beautiful gift we are being offered today”. “I’m looking forward, especially, to the first game,” she said. All I have in mind is seeing the official drop the puck on the ice. »
Until then, there is still a lot of work to be done. To make the dream come true. For real.
