Vancouver Canucks name first female assistant GM in team history

Émilie Castonguay has made Vancouver Canucks history. She’s been named assistant general manager, becoming the first female to hold that role with the team.

“Émilie has extensive experience, is driven to succeed, and has a strong reputation in hockey for her intelligence and work ethic,” said Interim General Manager Jim Rutherford.

“She will play a lead role in player contracts and negotiation, managing the collective bargaining agreement, and her voice will be heard in all aspects of hockey operations. She will be a key member of our leadership team and we are pleased to welcome her to Vancouver.”

Castonguay says she has a strong personal relationship with Vancouver.

“It’s always been a place where I wanted to be and I wanted to live. I actually had a vision board I’ve had for over five, six years and on it I had written a certain age and then I had written Vancouver beside it because I wanted to be in Vancouver at that point in my life. I didn’t know how I was going to get there or how it was going to happen. But I turn that age in about a month and a half. So, it’s always been in the back of my mind and on my vision board.”

When asked about being the first female to hold the role of assistant GM with the club, she said she’s never focused on gender in her career.

“I had a very non-binary approach to it, in a sense that I wanted to do something in hockey, and I wanted it to mean something to me,” Castonguay said.

“I think if you let gender get in your way or if you let it intimidate you, that’s when it will do that. I never really let that happen to me.”

She accepted the #Canucks job offer because she believes in the vision of Jim Rutherford and the Aquilinis.

"Great young team, hungry to win."

She had the Canucks on her vision board for a long time — perhaps as an agent or working for NHL.

"Vancouver was a no-brainer."

— Sandra Prusina (@sprusina) January 24, 2022

According to the Canucks, Castonguay was the first female NHLPA certified agent in Canada in 2016. In addition to her many accolades off the ice, she also has experience playing, having been part of NCAA Division 1 hockey at Niagara University for four years.

Castonguay has a law degree from l’Université de Montréal and is also a member of the Quebec Bar Association.

She says in her conversations with the Canucks, the fact she is a woman was never a topic of discussion.

“When Jim called it was about ‘I think you can fill this role, and I think you can be great at it.’ I’ve known Jim through different interactions in my career, but I just felt what he wanted was quality people with quality vision and that could have a quality impact. He thought that I was one of those people. For me, if I would’ve thought that it was to check a box or a PR move, I would’ve felt that from a mile away. I can tell you that much. I never had that feeling while I was talking to Vancouver.”

Canucks President, Hockey Operations and Interim General Manager Jim Rutherford announced today that Émilie Castonguay has been named Assistant General Manager.
Castonguay becomes the first female Assistant General Manager in team history.

DETAILS | https://t.co/92bL8fQTUv pic.twitter.com/lvwbWApcCQ

— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 24, 2022

Castonguay hopes this is the start of seeing more women hired in sports, particularly in hockey, adding she’s looking forward to helping the team rise up in the future. She says she believes in player development and giving players the resources they need “so they become the best versions of themselves.”

“For me to have a human impact in this organization is super important, and it’s something that I value. It’s something that I tend to do. I truly believe your team is only good as how your players feel, and it’s important to have a pulse on that.”

‘They feel like they are meant to be here’: Castonguay’s hiring praised

This decision from the Canucks is being welcomed by Brianna Waldman, a faculty instructor with Camosun College’s Sport Management Program on Vancouver Island.

“I think it’s always important to imagine the lens in which the leadership are viewing anything in,” Waldman told CityNews. “When you have the same type of individuals in the same leadership roles, you only get one lens, or a few types of lenses.

“The minute you bring in a different individual, whether it be gender or race or whatever that is, you get a different lens, which is automatically going to break down barriers. They’re going to see things differently, they’re going to do things differently, and it’s going to change the game, ideally in a positive.”

Waldman says Camosun’s sport management program has 18 to 30 per cent of students that are female-identifying.

“For me, what this may be able to lead to is maybe it will be 50 per cent one day. Who knows? But it’ll be a little bit more equal on the student front,” she said. “The more we have things like that, at least our female-identifying students, they just get more excited. They feel like they are meant to be here.”

We're getting some reaction @CityNewsVAN to the @Canucks' hiring of Émilie Castonguay, the hockey club's first female assistant general manager.

Brianna Waldman, a faculty instructor with Camosun College's Sport Management Program, shared this perspective with me: pic.twitter.com/dRf3sWrm8W

— Martin MacMahon (@martinmacmahon) January 24, 2022

Waldman points to other recent discussions as evidence that there’s more to be done, like four-time hockey gold medalist Hayley Wickenheiser’s push to design hockey sticks specifically for female players.

“Camosun aspires to really try and have multiple different voices working in our organization, which will only relay down to the type of students we have showing up in our classes as well,” said Waldman. “I think that’s the same that you’d see out in the professional world and the hockey world. The more variety of leadership voices that you have from the top, the more variety you’re going to see down, and that very much includes gender.”

Related video:

In early December, Jim Benning was fired as general manager with the Canucks. Travis Green was also let go from his position as head coach.

Bruce Boudreau was hired to replace Green.

Benning and Green’s firings came after the Canucks lost 10 of their 13 previous games, dropping to last in the Pacific Division.

With files from Sportsnet