Pierre Lacroix is stepping down from one of his jobs and keeping the other. And in his continuing role as the Avalanche president, he will be hiring his successor as general manager.
How about Ray Bourque or Patrick Roy, former Avalanche players whose numbers hang from the Pepsi Center rafters?
The question didn’t make Lacroix blink – or disclose much, either.
“I can’t honestly tell you if anybody is a candidate as we speak,” Lacroix said Friday after his news conference. Earlier, he had said that although he had a candidate in mind, and had talked with owner Stan Kroenke about the hiring process as far back as 2003, the wheels aren’t in motion.
Lacroix made it clear Friday that he still would have significant say in organizational decisions. That seemed to raise the possibility that high-profile candidates with GM experience in the NHL – such as recently fired former Pittsburgh GM Craig Patrick, who has two Stanley Cup championships on his résumé and extensive Denver ties; or Neil Smith, who oversaw a Cup title while running the New York Rangers – wouldn’t be possibilities.
However, Lacroix later said he didn’t think his presence would be a problem in the hiring process.
“No, because if that high-profile candidate has all the credentials we’re looking for in the next person, that won’t bother him,” he said. “I don’t know anyone who is a winner, who is a true loyal person, who would go against that kind of thing.”
So, what of Hall of Famers Roy and Bourque, whose names immediately came up after Lacroix’s announcement? Because they don’t have NHL GM experience, it would seem they would be among those willing to work under – and even welcome input from – Lacroix.
Bourque, who retired in 2001 and is tending to various business pursuits in the Boston area, was in the Denver area Friday night, signing memorabilia at the Colorado Mills mall. He said he wasn’t interested in the Avalanche job.
“I’ve traveled enough,” he said. “Being GM is really a commitment I don’t think I’m ready to make right now.
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to be ready to make that kind of a commitment. You have to be in it 100 percent.”
He said the vacant Bruins’ GM job didn’t intrigue him, either. “Not at this point, no,” he said.
But what of Roy?
“He’d be a great GM,” Bourque said. “He’s a great GM right now.”
While a player, Roy was part owner of the Quebec Remparts, a Quebec Major Junior Hockey League team in his hometown of Quebec City, and became GM after retiring. Early this season he took over as coach, and the Remparts are in the league finals against Moncton. Game 6 of that series is tonight. Moncton leads the series 3-2.
“That guy’s so passionate and lives it,” Bourque said. “I don’t think there’s a day that goes by when he isn’t thinking about or doing something to make his team better. And that’s the way you have to be to be a good GM. He certainly has the energy and will to do that.”
The Avs also could have a handful of in-house possibilities, including Michel Goulet, the Hall of Fame winger whose number was retired by the franchise when it was in Quebec. His Avs experience has ranged from director of player personnel to special assistant to Lacroix.
Former goaltender Craig Billington, Roy’s former backup and close friend, is the Avs’ director of player development. And Brad Smith is the director of player personnel.
At one point there had been speculation that Lacroix was hoping to turn over the reins to his son, Eric, a former NHL winger who also worked in the Avalanche front office after retiring as a player. Eric Lacroix now owns a new Central Hockey League franchise in Prescott, Ariz., and said Friday that while he was flattered and might consider trying to return to the NHL in a management capacity in “four or five years,” it wasn’t a possibility now.
Patrick, also a member of the Hall of Fame, had the league’s second-longest GM tenure – nearly 17 years at Pittsburgh – before he was fired in April after the season ended. Few considered his ouster much of a demerit on his record, considering the franchise had been through two bankruptcies, arena troubles, ownership messes and slashed budgets that handicapped him as a GM.
Patrick was an All-American at the University of Denver and later served as the Pioneers’ athletic director.
Terry Frei can be reached at 303-820-1895 or tfrei@denverpost.com.
