- Sportsnet persiste et signe..
- Daniel Brière sera le nouveau DG du Canadien de Montréal..
Briere, who played close to 1,000 games in the NHL and produced at a near-point-per-game pace in 124 playoff games over an illustrious career, has been preparing for a job like this since he hung up his skates six years ago.
The 44-year-old went straight from the ice to the front office when he was brought on by the Philadelphia Flyers in October 2015. He started off in the organization he played for by shadowing team president and former GM Paul Holmgren, he later took on a role in player development that he’s still in to this day, and in 2017 he assumed vice-president and general manager duties of the team’s ECHL affiliate in Maine.
The Mariners were in their infancy and Briere was charged with building their team from the ground up. He was involved in everything from recruitment to logo design, according to Martin Leclerc from Radio-Canada.
In 2018, Briere also began pursuing a degree in business administration at the most prestigious financial school in the United States, Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania. He did it because, even if he had already proven himself as a leader as a former captain of the Buffalo Sabres, he wanted to round out his profile.
It was during that year that the Mariners became the affiliate of the New York Rangers. While Briere did have some contact with Gorton, who was GM of the NHL club, most of his dealings were with former Sabres teammate Chris Drury, who was working underneath Gorton before succeeding him.
Still, Gorton would’ve been exposed to Briere’s kind manner, and have gotten a glimpse of what many around the hockey world have observed.
“He’s a great guy,” said a source we touched base with who’s close with Briere. “Molson said they want to hire a GM soon, and he’d be ready to go right away.
“And he wants this, there’s no question.”