Surprising revelations about GM Pierre Dorion, a direct link to Marc Bergevin

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Jeff Drouin
May 10, 2022 (1:35 PM)

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When Eugene Melnyk owned the Senators, many criticized the fact that he was close to his money and was controlling. Because of this, the organization's staff was not well filled and its GM, Pierre Dorion, acted almost alone.

Mr. Melnyk had remedied this problem by hiring Pierre McGuire as Vice President of Player Development. His mandate was to work alongside General Manager Pierre Dorion and the owner. His time with the team was short lived, however, as we learned on Monday that he has been relieved of his duties.

On 91.9 Sports this Tuesday morning, Senators reporter Alain Sanscartier said McGuire's firing is not surprising. At the time of his hiring, the Senators' situation was fragile and, from the outside, everyone had the impression that Melnyk was putting his eyes and ears to evaluate GM Pierre Dorion. So the GM simply took advantage of Melnyk's death to fire his chaperone... Ayoye!

Quite disturbing.

The journalist goes even further in his analysis by saying that Dorion is, like many NHL GMs, very controlling.

"Pierre Dorion is no different than any other NHL GM, he is controlling. The word team is not a word that is capitalized then broad. I have to rely on history unfortunately. The Senators have often been referred to in terms of management and the hockey environment on the 2nd floor as thin. Often it was made an association with the dollars Mr. Melnyk was willing to spend. But we never asked the other question, do we really want an expanded team of them?"

Sanscartier then went on a limb, mentioning that Dorion is far from the only GM who does this. He recalled that the former general manager of the CH was also, but that the organization decided to change the game.

"I'm telling you, Pierre Dorion is not an exception to the rule. You've known one in Montreal lately. If there was one controlling one in the NHL in terms of his organization, it's definitely Marc Bergevin. That's what we're trying to change in terms of the organizational culture of the Canadiens hockey club and that's one of the reasons why you don't hear as much about Jeff Gorton."

According to the journalist, Gorton would work very hard under the radar to develop at the organizational level a partnership between the various departments. Listening to Sanscartier, it might be time for Dorion to do the same because it seems that the problem, after all, was not only the owner but also his DG who likes to have control of everything...

You can listen to the full clip here.