Carbonneau returns to Canadiens
as supervisor of prospect development

By Bill Beacon for the Montréal Gazette, August 3, 2000

MONTREAL (CP) - Guy Carbonneau returned to the Montreal Canadiens on Thursday to take a loosely defined job called supervisor of prospect development. Carbonneau, 40, who retired from the Dallas Stars following their unsuccessful bid for a second Stanley Cup in June, will work with and follow the progress of young players in the Canadiens organization.

"It's a foot in the door - a job I can grow into," said Carbonneau, who turned down an offer to become a pro scout in Dallas to return to the Canadiens, with whom he played the first 12 of his 18 NHL seasons.

"To come back and work for the team I played for all those years is a dream come true. I'll try as much as possible to help make the Canadiens what they were before."

The Sept-Iles, Que., native, is the latest addition to what general manager Rejean Houle calls his "hockey committee," a front-office team that has been rebuilt this summer following the departures of assistant GMs Jacques Lemaire and Phil Scheuer and scouts Dave King and Mario Tremblay.

Looking to reorganize after missing the playoffs for two consecutive seasons, the Canadiens had already brought in former Ottawa assistant coach Andre Savard as director of player development and former New York Rangers assistant GM Martin Madden as chief scout.

Houle said he will soon name another assistant GM, probably a lawyer, to handle contract negotiations. Pierre Dorion remains as head of amateur scouting and Pierre Mondou stays on as pro scout.

"We feel we have the people now to get through the transition period we're in," said Houle, whose team was also recently put up for sale by its owner, Molson Inc. "We know we need youth and energy on our team.

"We have a three-year plan and we have the people now who can carry it out and make us a successful team in the future."

Carbonneau, a respected former Canadiens captain who some see taking over as GM one day, will report to Savard, but will also assist Houle in making decisions on which young players should be kept or let go.

"At the end of the year, you need to decide which young players to sign," said Savard. "That's very important.

"These days, if you're going to sign someone, you'd better know him. Carbo played a long time and won (three) Stanley Cups. Everyone knows the courage he showed and his hockey sense. I don't think they're going to fool him."

Carbonneau had to settle matters with his wife, Line, and his two daughters before taking the job.

His eldest daughter, Anne-Marie, 18, is starting university this fall in Dallas, where she also dates Stars rookie Brendan Morrow.

"My family really enjoyed Dallas," said Carbonneau. "It's a great life.

"There's no snow, so you don't have to worry about what to wear. And the school system is awesome. That made it hard, but the opportunity here was a lot better than in Dallas."

No salary was mentioned for his new job, but Houle quipped that Carbonneau "has already learned about making cuts - he had quite a big cut in salary."

Houle said he deliberately left Carbonneau's job description open-ended in order to ease him into retirement from playing.

"We wanted Carbo to be comfortable with the transition from being a player to management," said Houle. "I went through that. We all went through that.

"You can't imagine the gap there is. So we wanted to give him time, ease him in. For now, he'll work with our young players, then we'll see."