After a few weeks of “will they, won’t they” reporting, the Montreal Canadiens have officially announced Vincent Lecavalier as a special advisor to hockey operations. Perhaps more importantly, the team has also announced that Nick Bobrov has been hired as co-director of amateur scouting, where he will work alongside Martin Lapointe.
Lecavalier obviously is the big name, and one that has been linked to the Canadiens for a very, very long time. The big center was a legendary junior hockey player in the QMJHL, starring with the Rimouski Oceanic for two years before going first overall to the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft. A long, successful career followed that included 1,212 regular-season games, 949 regular-season points and a Stanley Cup championship alongside new Canadiens head coach Martin St. Louis in 2004. Throughout his playing career, Lecavalier was represented by Kent Hughes, now GM of the Canadiens, and rumored to be on the move to Montreal seemingly every summer.
He never did suit up for the Canadiens as a player, instead seeing time with the Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings, but Montreal will finally get their man. He’ll join a front office that looks wildly different than just a few months ago.
One of those important changes will be Bobrov, who is joining his former boss in Jeff Gorton. The scout worked as the director of European scouting for several years under Gorton in New York and was also with him during his years with the Boston Bruins. The Canadiens are about to go through a franchise-altering draft, with 12 picks in their pocket already and more to come before next month’s trade deadline. Hosting the draft in Montreal, they have a chance to really pump the prospect pool full of talent in one quick sweep.
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