Darche making most of 2nd career, hired as Islanders general manager 

MONTREAL -- In the end, Mathieu Darche missed the 2012 steak dinner that he was instrumental in setting up, and the raincheck has yet to be claimed.

Hired as general manager and executive vice president of the New York Islanders on Friday, Darche will bring a carnivorous appetite and strong credentials to his new job.

The Islanders will formally introduce him to the media at a news conference on Thursday.

Darche took his 2000 McGill University commerce degree, majoring in marketing and international business, into the NHL as a player and most recently as assistant GM and director of hockey operations with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Under GM Julien BriseBois, he helped the Lightning win back-to-back Stanley Cup championships in 2020 and 2021.

Mathieu Darche, with the Montreal Canadiens, skates against the New York Islanders at Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 9, 2012, in Uniondale, New York.

Bridging his playing and front-office careers, the native of Montreal-borough St. Laurent served as a member of the NHL Players’ Association negotiating committee, working alongside fellow skaters and then-NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr, and later as vice president of sales and marketing for Montreal-based Delmar International Inc., a global giant in freight forwarding and customs brokerage.

It was in 2012, during a work stoppage that reduced the NHL season from 82 to 48 games, when Darche pounced on a goofy, spur-of-the-moment post on my social media and spawned a generous donation to the Montreal Gazette’s Christmas Fund, which for more than a half-century has helped less privileged Montrealers with a welcome hand during the holidays.

My post promised gregarious Canadiens forward Colby Armstrong a dinner on my credit card at landmark Moishes steakhouse in Montreal if he took a photo during an October 2012 exhibition benefit in Quebec City and posted it on social media from the rink during the game.

Mathieu Darche skates with the Columbus Blue Jackets against the Toronto Maple Leafs on April 8, 2002, at Air Canada Centre (now Scotiabank Arena) in Toronto.

Darche, then an unsigned free agent who had skated his last NHL game, was playing that night and knew a free meal when he sniffed one. He and Armstrong took a photo of themselves together, posting it and nailing me for a dinner which now was for three.

Almost immediately, the idea gathered momentum. The dinner caper went online as a fundraiser, the winning bidder and a guest to join a voracious group of Canadiens that would include Armstrong, captain Brian Gionta, defenseman Josh Gorges, forwards Travis Moen and Brandon Prust and goalie Carey Price.

I still have the staggering Gazette-paid dinner check somewhere, almost long enough to be worn as a scarf. When I asked Moen, a Saskatchewan farm boy with a stomach the capacity of a grain silo, whether he enjoyed his sirloin, he replied “Which one?” Thankfully, Moishes owner Lenny Lighter uncorked the wine at his own expense.

Not really Mathieu Darche’s final game-worn skates, on display at the Hockey Hall of Fame. These Starr blades, which were bolted onto winter boots, are from the 1920s.

Darche was in New York that night on NHLPA business, so we raised a glass in his honor.

“But you still owe me a dinner!” he chirped by message.

Through the years, our friendship has raised eyebrows of the unknowing when we’ve trolled each other on social media.

One of my posts about a game from the NHL’s earliest days would be met with Darche’s comment, “Must have been really special for you to cover that one!”

I’d reply that I couldn’t write about him that night because, as usual, he was a healthy scratch.

Lighthearted 2020 Stanley Cup congratulations extended on Facebook to Mathieu Darche, for which he had a good reply.

We’ve had great fun ribbing each other for more than a decade, often about my personal relationship with Lord Stanley of Preston and his economical offensive production.

Darche played parts of nine NHL seasons spanning 2001-12 as a forward with the Columbus Blue Jackets, Nashville Predators, San Jose Sharks, Lightning and Canadiens. He had 72 points (30 goals, 42 assists) in 250 regular-season games and three points (one goal, two assists) in 18 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

He played another 552 games for six teams in the American Hockey League between 2000-10. He had 443 points (212 goals, 231 assists) during the regular season and 26 (10 goals, 16 assists) in 47 playoff games, a member of Milwaukee’s Calder Cup championship team in 2004.

A favorite with fans for his energy and certainly with the media in Montreal for his sharp insight in fluent, thoughtful English and French, Darche retired as a player in February 2013, giving up on the possibility he’d catch on with a team as a free agent.

Mathieu Darche, as director of hockey operations for the Tampa Bay Lightning, looks on from his team’s table during the first round of the 2020 NHL Draft at Amalie Arena in Tampa on Oct. 6, 2020. The draft was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.

“Time to make it official! Moving on to a second career,” he posted on his Twitter (X) account.

Darche didn’t rule out a career in hockey management at the time, having been an impressive, important voice on the NHLPA negotiating team during collective bargaining agreement talks with the League, but he found neither the right boardroom fit nor the challenge he sought.

And then, as a guest at an April 2013 sports celebrity breakfast in Montreal, he met Mike Wagen, chief operating officer of family-owned, privately held Delmar International Inc.

A pleasant talk led the men to a lunch, a few subsequent meetings with other company executives bringing Darche an offer he was delighted to accept.

He always figured he'd wind up in business, having earned his degree while playing collegiately for McGill from 1996-2000.

Montreal Canadiens’ Mathieu Darche on his team’s Bell Centre bench before a March 22, 2010, game against the Ottawa Senators.

“There was a little 13-year sidetrack, which I loved,” Darche said at the time, speaking of his NHL and minor pro career that led him to Delmar. “But I almost feel that what I'm doing now is what I studied for.

“Even if I'd made millions and millions in the NHL, if something like this came up now, I'd probably have taken it. It's what I studied and what I thought I would do. I want to be challenged professionally and intellectually, and this is a nice challenge.”

And then came his move into hockey’s front office, hired in May 2019 by BriseBois as Tampa Bay’s director of hockey operations.

Two Stanley Cup championships would follow, as would the title of assistant GM and the growing possibility he’d graduate to the top job with an NHL team, his business acumen well-tailored to the player development and salary-cap portfolios he managed with the Lightning.

Only four Canadiens in history have worn No. 52 -- defenseman Craig Rivet (1997-2007), Darche (2010-12), forward Bud Holloway for a single game in 2016 and forward Justin Barron from 2022 until his trade to the Nashville Predators for defenseman Alexandre Carrier on Dec. 18, 2024.

As a prank, a heavily discounted Mathieu Darche Montreal Canadiens jersey is prepared on May 23, 2025, at the team’s Bell Centre Tricolore Sports store, with a warmup puck from the Jan. 25, 2024, Canadiens-New York Islanders game; and Darche’s name, midway down the second row, as it appears among 760 others on the Canadiens’ Centennial monument outside the arena.

I’ve reminded Darche on occasion that it must be because the Canadiens have so many numbers retired that they can’t afford to hang his No. 52 from Bell Centre rafters, no matter the outrageous oversight, telling him to take heart that No. 5 is retired for Bernie Geoffrion and Guy Lapointe, No. 2 retired for Doug Harvey.

Outside the arena, on the south face of a hulking four-sided monument in a plaza celebrating the Canadiens Centennial, Darche’s name is among the 761 skaters and goalies who played a total of 100,497 regular-season games for the franchise during its first century. You’ll find him alphabetically between Craig Darby and Lorne Davis.

A visit to the Canadiens’ Bell Centre store on Friday found no Darche merchandise on hangers or shelves, so the staff played along for what should be my final zing of a friend who’s taken a large step up the management ladder.

A clerk at Tricolore Sports made up a nameplated and numbered Darche jersey for a photo, dropping a $5 price tag on it for effect. We placed a conveniently found Jan. 25, 2024, warmup puck beneath the numbers to mark Darche’s hometown Canadiens past and his Islanders present.

This, and much more, surely will be discussed one day soon over a promised steak that now is well past medium-rare, having been on the fire for nearly 13 years.

Top photo: Colby Armstrong (l.) and Mathieu Darche in the photo that launched a fundraising dinner, and Darche with the Stanley Cup at Edmonton’s Rogers Place on Sept. 28, 2020, following the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Game 6 championship-clinching win against the Dallas Stars.