Pierre McGuire doesn't last a year with Senators

Justin Cuthbert and Julian McKenzie discuss Pierre McGuire's short-lived return to hockey operations after he was let go by Ottawa on Monday.

Video Transcript

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Lesser distinguished hockey people, execs, staff members, whatever, Peter McGuire would be considered one of them, probably the opposite end of the spectrum compared to Barry Trotz, even though they do opposite things. But after 10 months with the Ottawa Senators-- we believe, we haven't confirmed this either through The Athletic, Yahoo Sports, TSN, SportCenter-- I haven't really seen it anywhere confirmed, just been reported, however, that Pierre McGuire is out as I believe the senior vice president of player development with the Ottawa Senators?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Correct.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Basically, he was one half of the two Dorions, and now we just have-- or the two Pierres, rather-- and now we just have Pierre Dorion, at least it seems. Very strange.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Just want-- just want a slight correction here. I can confirm that The Athletic has confirmed that Pierre McGuire is gone. So we have that.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Wonderful, wonderful. So Pierre McGuire is out from his post with the Ottawa Senators. It was a very strange decision to begin with. It's a little stranger now that they didn't see the process through. But having two Pierres running the show seemed like a foolish idea, and it's an idea that has now been abandoned. Thoughts?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Here's what I want to know. What is Pierre McGuire's legacy as senior vice president of player development? It's not just Tyler Bouchard. Is it Tyler Bouchard? A lot of people like to pick at the Tyler Bouchard draft pick and say that's it. Is that really it?

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Was that his decision? Do we know that?

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's it. I don't know.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I don't think he did anything.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: That's the question I'm trying to ask. I don't know what he did.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Provide me with memes. I don't think he did anything.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Like, genuinely, like the one thing that I remember vividly that I could say, OK, Pierre McGuire did during his tenure was take that damn photo of him in the box with Pierre Dorion giving each other fist bumps.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: And we memed that, I think, when that happened.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: It was a great meme.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: It was a great meme, but I don't know what Pierre McGuire did. I don't know if he did anything, and that's the question I have. Like, what legacy does he have in that position? Like, what was it? What did he really do? I'm not trying to discredit what Pierre McGuire-- what knowledge he has. I know a lot of people like to make fun of him with how he deals with analytics, but dude--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Encyclopedia.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Dude knows what daycares certain NHL players went to in their youth before they went to whatever boarding school they went to. The man is smart for a reason. But I don't know what this man did during the, what, July minus May? Not even a full year in that job. I do not know what he did.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah, I don't know either. So I don't know why he wasn't given the opportunity to continue on with this job other than the fact that Eugene Melnyk is not around anymore. Obviously Melnyk passed two months ago. Melnyk hired Pierre McGuire. Melnyk advocated, it seems, for Pierre McGuire. So I wonder if this is just, hey, this is not the direction we want to go anymore. We don't need two Pierres running the show. We just need Dorion to make the decisions.

But again, I don't know who's making the decisions now that Melnyk isn't making the decisions. I know the franchise has stayed within the family so far, but I don't know why this decision was made, how it was made, the reason why he was brought on in the first place, the reason why he's now out. It never really made sense. I think we could try to erase this from our memories, but anything Pierre McGuire-related is just far too funny to do that. So that meme will live on forever.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah. But even then, like, I feel like we don't-- I wish we would have had more time, because I really feel there was just so much more potential for us to really go through--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I mean, it could have been a reality show.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: Yeah. Like a Sens TV thing, where you're just seeing like him and Pierre Dorion in like an elevator and they're just talking about-- Like, I would love a five-minute snippet of Pierre Dorion and Pierre McGuire-- I keep saying Dorion. Like, he's French. I get it. Pierre Dorion and Pierre McGuire--

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: That's my bad.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: No, dude. Dude, look, I'm the guy in the French province here. I should know better. I would pay just to watch five minutes of those two guys talking about like either a player they want in the draft or what they think about a player and what philosophies each of them have. I would pay money just to hear how that discussion would go.

Better yet, wouldn't surprise me if Pierre McGuire in the coming weeks-- maybe not even in the coming weeks. If I'm Mitch Melnick at TSN 690 in Montreal right now who, for context, Pierre McGuire spent the last how many years as the guest at 5:00 PM on the Drive Home Show on TSN 690. If I'm Mitch Melnick, the host of that show, I'm calling up Pierre and I'll be like, dude, what happened? And I'm listening to that interview, and I know he's telling us everything. He's telling us what is going on.

Because there ain't no reason-- ain't no way-- ain't no reason why Pierre McGuire should be the situation that he is in now after less than a year on the job. Something happened.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: Yeah, something definitely did happen. I think McGuire unintentionally on camera would be better than Melnick intentionally on camera. I feel like him breaking down draft prospects on the draft floor with just like someone shooting it with him not really realizing would produce, as you pointed out, some pretty great content. I think it would have been hilarious if we got to see more of Pierre McGuire. I actually would have liked to see him try to improve an NHL roster. Like, I wanted to see the Pierre McGuire experiment play out, but we're not going to get to see that. His mark won't be an indelible one on the Ottawa Senators.

JULIAN MCKENZIE: You've got to play-- you've got to play "I Will Remember You" by Sarah McLachlan at some point in this segment just to look back at the Pierre McGuire era that was.

JUSTIN CUTHBERT: I'm sure it's on loop in Ottawa right now.