Canadiens: Book Review – Histoire de Repêchage

With Christmas being just around the corner, it’s time to think about what you could get for the hockey fan in your life. Last month, we took a look at Brendan Kelly’s Habs Nation: A People’s History of the Montreal Canadiens, and this month, we’ll dive into Mathias Brunet’s Histoire de repechage.

Brunet is a journalist who writes for one of Quebec’s top newspapers, La Presse, and he’s also written a few books over the years, including popular works with Pierre Gervais, the Habs' former equipment manager, who took readers inside the Canadiens’ dressing room. Unlike Pierre Gervais Au Coeur du Vestiaire and Pierre Gervais In Overtime, this book doesn’t focus solely on the Canadiens, but they are the most mentioned team.

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Each chapter covers a different anecdote about a certain draft and includes interviews with the people involved while also looking back at how the players drafted did in the years that followed. Fair warning, some chapters could be painful to read for Canadiens’ fans, like the one about the incredibly prolific 2003 draft win which the Habs came away with Andrei Kostistyn when they could have had Jeff Carter, Ryan Getzlaf or Corey Perry amongst other. You’ll also learn that Perry came very close to never playing for the Anaheim Ducks, but the proposed trade with the Edmonton Oilers fell through, and the Ducks are probably thanking their lucky stars it did.

Of course, the book takes you inside GM Kent Hughes’ first draft, which he lived not only as an executive for the first time, but also as a father, keeping his son Jack Hughes (not the one playing for the New Jersey Devils) in mind at all times.

There’s also a fascinating chapter about former Hab Mathieu Darche, who got really emotional when he drafted Matthew Schaefer. The New York Islanders GM lost his father not too long ago, and just like Schaefer, who wasn’t there when his mom passed, he wasn’t there when his dad died. Since the youngster’s mom died of breast cancer, the Isles decided to put the breast cancer pink ribbon on his jersey as a tribute to his mother.

The Mario Lemieux draft and the way he snubbed the Pittsburgh Penguins are covered, just like Alexandre Daigle’s disappointing career. The way Patrick Roy was drafted is also in there, as well as how his association with the Canadiens ended, and the trophies and honors he took home. While the book is fascinating, it does include a few noteworthy errors. It states that Roy played his last game with the Canadiens at the end of November, but that fateful night against the Detroit Red Wings took place on December 2, 1995. It also indicated that the goaltender won a Conn Smythe trophy with the Habs when he had two. There’s also another one in Lemieux’s stats in his draft years, errors that the editor should have caught.

One of the most interesting chapters is probably the one about Brendan Gallagher’s selection, seen through the eyes of Jonathan Brunelle, a French-Canadian prospect who was hoping to be picked when the alternate captain was. It’s hard not to wonder what would have happened if the Canadiens had never drafted him. At times, analysts lamented the selection of a diminutive player over a “petit gars de chez nous”, but 15 years later, anyone would have to say that the Habs made the right call.

Brunet also spends a chapter on Kent Hughes’ start in the agency business and how he very nearly gave up just before Vincent Lecavalier entrusted him with his career. It’s hard to imagine who would currently be at the helm of the Canadiens’ rebuild if the Tampa Bay Lightning player hadn’t changed the course of his life.

Serge Savard’s best moves, the Canadiens’ tendency to pick Americans, the Louis Leblanc debacle, how Andre Savard tried his best to get Ilya Kovalchuk, and so many more draft stories are covered throughout the book’s 292 pages, and it makes for an interesting read.

Brunet also explains how he became a journalist, and it’s interesting to read that someone who works for traditional media didn’t take the conventional path to get there. In that sense, the book can also be a source of inspiration for budding journalists. The book is now on sale in bookstores across the province, but there’s no English version yet.

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