Danièle Sauvageau named GM of Montreal PWHL team

After the league and team was officially announced on Tuesday, we knew it would be a whirlwind of news throughout the next month. On Friday, Danièle Sauvageau was officially named as the general manager of Montreal’s PWHL team.

Today is also the day that teams can start signing three players to contracts prior to the league-wide draft on September 18. Players can sign as of 1:00 p.m. Eastern Friday until September 10.

Sauvageau is simply a legend in the sport. She was named an assistant coach to Canada’s first Olympic team in 1998 after coaching in the Quebec regional league and Canada’s Under-19 team that included Caroline Ouellette, among others. After the silver medal, she eventually became an assistant coach with the Montreal Rocket in 1999-2000, becoming the first (and remains the only) female bench assistant in QMJHL history.

She likely could have forged a path in men’s hockey but the women’s national team came calling. She was named head coach and general manager of the team in 2000 to lead them at the 2001 World Championships and 2002 Olympics. Her group in Salt Lake City set the stage for four straight Olympic gold medals for the Canadians. She also had a “Coaches Corner” type segment on the French language Hockey Night in Canada, and continued to broadcast games as an analyst. She was reportedly a candidate for the recent GM search of the Montreal Canadiens that eventually went to Kent Hughes.

Sauvageau was instrumental in bringing a women’s hockey program to the Université de Montréal and was the team’s general manager as they went from startup to national champions in just a few seasons. She also worked for France’s national women’s team program.

In 2018-19, she became an associate coach with Les Canadiennes alongside Ouellette. She was coach and general manager with the Montreal chapter of the PWHPA during the Dream Gap tour, and was instrumental in opening the Centre 21.02 in Verdun. The centre, named for the date of Canada’s first women’s hockey Olympic gold medal on February 21, is the only high performance centre for the sport in Canada. She was the centre’s CEO.

During the pandemic, Sauvageau was instrumental in fighting for players to still have the opportunity to train despite the shutdown, even if it meant two players at a time on opposite ends of the rink.

Her time with the Centre and how she dealt with players eventually became in a way the blueprint for the league’s CBA with players.

“Danièle was fighting for us on a regular basis. And I think she still is and I think she wants to put us in the situation where all we have to do is show up and perform and try and be our best,” said Laura Stacey, who trains in Montreal,  last season. “We don’t have to worry about the ice time and the coaches and all of those elements are taken care of.”

Sauvageau also worked 33 years for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Montreal Police, including 10 in the narcotics division. According to reports, as a sergeant, she performed undercover operations, busted a squad car full of drug dealers, and ordered the forced entry operation to save a double agent whose life was in danger.

She now will be in charge of building the Montreal hockey operation through free agency and the draft.

Players can declare for the draft up until September 3. The draft will be 15 rounds and fill the majority of the league’s rosters. Unlike previous women’s hockey drafts, players do not get to choose markets to get drafted. The CBA provides relocation and housing stipends for players, allowing a level of integrity of competition that is unparalleled for North American professional women’s hockey where so much of team building was based on who was available to play in a certain location.

There is an opportunity for players to apply for a Compassionate Circumstance Waiver Request that would allow them to be considered to only play in one specific market. The team would have the exclusive opportunity, but not the obligation, to negotiate a deal with them either after selecting them in the draft or as a post-draft camp invitee. This would be an exception, rather than the norm it was in the CWHL and PHF.

Players who are drafted but unable to reach an agreement with the team will have their rights held by the team for two seasons, after which they can re-enter the draft. A player can enter a maximum of two drafts over their career.

The league CBA has been publicly released for the first time, and has some interesting nuggets. Instead of a salary floor and cap, teams will be required to remain within 10% of a $55,000 average salary for their 23-player roster. On top of that, six players must have a minimum salary of $80,000 on a three-year contract. This will be a mix of the pre-draft signings and negotiations post-draft.

The league minimum salary is $35,000. Players are also given up to $2,500 in relocation costs and a housing stipend of $1,500 per month for the first season. These and all other benefits, including health and life insurance, and per diems do not count against a player’s base salary or the team’s average salary.

Teams can have a maximum of 20 players signed to contracts prior to training camp. Teams must bring at least 10 undrafted and unsigned players to training camp. This means teams that use all three signings will have at least 28 players at their training camps to select their final 23 players, and at least three spots will be open for those eight additional players.

Before the draft on September 18, we can expect the news of the league’s first signings to trickle through in the coming days as well as the start of coaching staffs and hockey operations staffs being brought into the fold.

UPDATE: The PWHL also announced the draft order, and Montreal got the sixth pick, which means they will also pick first in every second round.

Minnesota
Toronto
Boston
New York
Ottawa
Montreal