Monday, April 23, 2012

Calling All Candidates

The Montreal Canadiens are at a crossroads. Poised at the juncture of several possible paths, the most important decision they make this off-season will be choosing the person who will lead them forward. The new general manager will be responsible for selecting the team's highest draft pick in more than thirty years, deciding what to do with Scott Gomez, shoring up the defence and the second line and signing P.K.Subban and Carey Price to new contracts. And that's just before September. After this season's debacle and the steady erosion of the Canadiens' reputation for first-class behaviour under Pierre Gauthier's regime, it's vital the Habs carefully choose the right person. To that end, it's very important to examine all available candidates.

So far, we've heard many of the names of the men Serge Savard and Geoff Molson are considering for the job. Julien BriseBois is a popular choice. So is Pierre McGuire, for some. Claude Loiselle, Patrick Roy, Marc Bergevin, Vincent Damphousse, Pat Brisson and Blair Mackasey have also joined the list. It's an impressive list by any measure. Still there's a candidate who should be considered, whose name hasn't been, and won't be, mentioned.

This former player has won a scoring title, three Olympic gold medals and five World Championships. The candidate earned an honours degree in psychology from Harvard, while becoming the all-time NCAA scoring leader and while coaching younger players. The family genes are good too, with a famous sports-psychologist dad who counsels NHL teams, a brother who's already an assistant NHL GM, without nearly as good a resume, and a mom who represented Canada twice at the Olympics. And, yes, this candidate speaks both English and French fluently.

Her name is Jennifer Botterill.

Right now, many of you are probably immediately dismissing the idea that a woman could be qualified to be the Canadiens general manager, but if you are, stop and think about it for a moment. What, precisely, qualified Pierre Gauthier to take the job? Certainly not his playing career or front-office success. Bob Gainey's resume wasn't better than Botterill's, only he played in the NHL, while she was played at the highest level of competition in the women's game. Garth Snow had no pedigree when he became the Isles' GM. Neither did Brett Hull when the Stars hired him. The point is, there are likely as many good female candidates out there as male, but they won't be considered because of their sex. That's as stupid as passing over a great person because they don't speak the right language.

Take Hayley Wickenheiser, for example. She's probably the greatest player ever in women's hockey. There's nothing she hasn't accomplished on the ice, including becoming the first woman to score in a men's pro game. Away from the ice, she's studying to attend medical school after hockey, she's a mom and she's a member of the Order of Canada. Sports Illustrated named her to its list of 25 Toughest Athletes, and  The Hockey News placed her #59 on its list of the top 100 Most Influential People in Hockey.

Or what about Vicky Sunohara? She's a hockey legend and generally regarded as one of the greatest leaders ever to play the women's game. She's instructed young players for years, and is now the head coach of the Toronto Varsity Blues women's team. Or maybe Danielle Goyette? She's got a pair of Olympic gold medals and is the head coach of the Calgary Dinos varsity women's team. One of the players she coached last year? Hayley Wickenheiser.

Women have been making their mark in hockey for a long time, but are only now beginning to make inroads into the professional ranks. Teams like the Montreal Stars, featuring some of the best in the game, are slowly seeing their popularity increase. The fact that more people don't come out to watch them, however, doesn't mean their hockey minds aren't as keen or their ability to become managers in the sport any less than a guy who punched his GM ticket as an NHL player. (In fact, considering the number of head shots handed out in men's versus women's hockey, I'd be more inclined to trust an ex-player of the female variety when it comes to logic and solid decision-making.)

The Canadiens won't hire Jen Botterill to be their GM, or even give her a shot as an assistant GM so she'll have a chance to learn the front-office ropes. It's a shame, because she'd be a great candidate. And, really, talent and potential in management are just as important as they are on the ice. The NHL team that decides to look for that talent and potential among the entire hockey community rather than just half of it, will someday, perhaps, be pleasantly surprised. The Canadiens would be wise to be trailblazers and think about it.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Riiight....a woman as the habs GM. You are dreaming. I doubt they would want another Manon Rheaume moment.

Raj said...

One of your best, JT. If we're going to break up the old boys' network, only to replace it with a new boys' network, what's the point? There are a few women executives in the NFL, which is no less manly than the NHL. Let's start a write-in campaign for Jennifer Botterill; seeing as she has a degree in psychology, perhaps she could be coach first, like our formerly lamented (but not so much nowadays) Guy Boucher.

I really would like to see Brian Burke's face when he sees a woman sitting across the table at a meeting of the league's GMs -- and discovers she's not serving coffee.

Yanne said...

Such a great post J.T.!! I never even considered this idea but reading it now, well.. it just feels right.

Indeed it doesn't feel so realistic for the Habs to hire a female GM right now. I think the biggest issue with it, considering her peers in general, is that she might become isolated rather quickly...

That said, you have to start somewhere and assistant GM should definitely be possible...

Kyle Roussel said...

This is great stuff. It's high time that the NHL breaks that barrier, and it seems all that is holding it back is some silly notion that a woman can't do a hockey man's work.

The Canadiens would be well served to at the *very least* make some headlines and raise the issue publicly by speaking to her, or any other woman who may have similar qualifications.

Anonymous said...

The "highest level of competition in the women's game" is not even close to the NHL.

The Canadian Women's Olympic team regularly has tune ups for the Olympics by playing JR. A squads across the country in what are competitive games.

So no, Jennifer Botterill's hockey experience is nowhere close to Bob Gainey's.

Anonymous said...

Even if her hockey experience could be translated into any nhlers experience, the point is she IS a woman, and i'm not sexist, but i would also not like to be ridiculed for having a female, GM and i'm positive that she will not even get consideration for the job.

Anonymous said...

Wow, congratulations on an original and provocative piece. This is the sort of thing that makes the blogosphere so far ahead of the 'professional' media, it's sick.

You make a good case for the Habs hiring one of these promising women for a position within the eventual management team. Clearly, though, none of them have a c.v. that even remotely qualifies them to GM a team at the NHL level, let alone in the most demanding market in all of hockey. The real question posed by your entry is not 'why haven't teams hired female GMs,' but rather, why are there NO women in any managerial team anywhere in the NHL? And the only explanation is: sexism.

J.T. said...

@anon: (the one immediately above) You got it in one. The piece isn't meant to say that Jennifer Botterill should be the Habs G.M. right at this moment. The point is, many women in hockey are just as smart, educated, motivated and insightful as men. It would be significant for a team like the Habs to hire a person like Botterill to be part of a management team and let her EARN her way toward the big job. She, as much as any man interested in a career in management, deserves a chance to build a resume in the field. Her qualifications as a front-office candidate are quite as good as anyone's.

HeadHunter said...

Love the doubters hiding behind anon ids. Interesting point and a valid one. I agree with you and the one coherent anon in that a jump to GM is probably not in the book but bringing in the experience, perspective, and talent of these women into NHL offices could only help things.

Anonymous said...

By not considering women the Habs are not excluding half of the hockey community. The number of women who have played at a high level like the Olympics is much smaller than the number of men who have played at a high level (NHL, AHL, Europe, ECHL, junior, college).

Botterill's family connections to the NHL are not qualifications for an NHL job. It's like saying Sid Howe and Keith Gretzky were going to be good players because their brothers were.

Very few ex-players have become successful GM's without first serving an apprenticeship for at least a couple of years.

The poor record of ex-players with no apprenticeship, like Hull and Snow, indicates how important learning the ropes is. And these players failed despite having spent many years seeing how the NHL works from the inside.

Putting a complete outsider like Botterill in as an NHL GM is setting them up for failure.

If any of the women you named want to become NHL GMs then they will need to do what most successful GMs have done - get their foot in the door and work their way up.

Will any team give them a chance? That's the $64,000 question. Maybe Botterill's family connections could open the door for her.

DB

Anonymous said...

dra58-- As a father of a daughter who is going into a man's world I loved this piece. I agree that she should like ANY other candidate earn her stripes so why not hire a female assistant GM if she is qualified. Color of skin or gender should not play into the equation. On NBC'S the Voice teams are picked based only on their ability to sing in a blind audition by the coaches. Maybe the NHL executives should do the same in interviews and base only on merrit. What makes a former player who never negotiated his own contract now smart enough to deal with agents who specialize in the field of negotiations?

DT said...

Love it, JT!
You must be the first to write about this because I've never heard of the notion before (or even though of it myself and I'm a girl who grew up playing hockey with boys since the age of 5). Rad!

Hope the idea isn't too threatening to some and helps open the minds of most to appreciate the potential anyone can bring to the table. I want what's fair and good for the team!

Anonymous said...

Well said, J.T.

V said...

Love it JT.

Wouldn't be great if a woman was the most qualified candidate and the Habs hired her. And if she was not the most qualified but still highly qualified, wouldn't be great if the Habs did give her a position as an assistant.

I work in an industry where women make up over 50% of our talent. Twenty years ago they might have made up 30%. They now occupy many leadership positions (none have been CEO yet but it's going to happen) and we lead our industry in Canada by a long shot. I don't give the qualifications of my female colleagues a shred of doubt.

In addition, I have done considerable research on the value of diversity in prediction and problem solving (two skills highly prized on a GM's team) and understand how a woman might bring an entirely new insight into the stodgy, all-male world of sports management.

Despite all of that, when I read the words 'Jenifer Botterill', I was surprised at how much they caught me off guard. I had never even considered that a woman could be a viable candidate for a job in a man's sport.

Thanks for shaking me out of my testoserone induced coma.

Anonymous said...

Intriguing idea... but it's (almost) as unlikely that the Habs would hire a male who retired last year as GM as a female...

Shawn said...

It's a thought but it's not going to happen, at least anytime soon. The fact that the NFL has opened doors brings potential but culturally speaking the NHL is much different. On the other hand, I never thought we'd see a female on Hockey Night In Canada either.

Anonymous said...

Your statement "Bob Gainey's resume wasn't better than Botterill's" is laughable. The man's name is on the Stanley Cup as a player 5 times, he's won it as a manager, he's won a Canada Cup and played in 4 All Star Games. Please, if you're going to try and convince us that a woman playing on a women's hockey team is a good choice for GM please don't try and minimize the accomplishments of what Viktor Tikhonov called the world's greatest all round hockey player.

Good God man give your head a shake.

V said...

Anonymous... I think you'll have to go with 'Good God woman, give your head a shake'.

JT is a living, breathing example that you don't need testacles to understand hockey very, very well thank you (and to write eloguently on it).

moeman said...

A very good reasoned read.