The Canadiens also named Nick Bobrov co-director of amateur scouting to work alongside
Martin Lapointe
, Canadiens director of player personnel.
Lecavalier said his role will be to support Canadiens general manager Kent Hughes and president of hockey operations Jeff Gorton while also offering his thoughts and advice on the team to coach Martin St. Louis and the players when necessary.
A former center, Lecavalier played with St. Louis on the Tampa Bay Lightning from 2000-13, winning the Stanley Cup in 2004. Hughes was Lecavalier's agent when he was a player.
St. Louis was named Montreal coach Feb. 9 after Dominique Ducharme was fired.
"What I love about this is I can help in every department; it can be the scouting department, it can be the player personnel department, it can be with the actual players, the coaches, and Kent and Jeff," Lecavalier said. "That's what I love about why Kent brought me in, to help out a little bit on everything but on specific tasks and I'm excited for that. But for sure I'll be watching a lot of hockey."
Lecavalier scored 949 points (421 goals, 528 assists) in 1,212 games during 17 NHL seasons with the Lighting, Philadelphia Flyers and Los Angeles Kings. He won the Rocket Richard Trophy for leading the NHL in goals with 52 in 2006-07.
Lecavalier scored 56 points (26 goals, 30 assists) in 75 Stanley Cup Playoff games.
The 41-year-old native of Ile Bizard, Quebec, still lives in Tampa and will remain there while working for the Canadiens.
"It's definitely a perfect match for me," Lecavalier said. "Last week I think I got a thousand texts from people asking] if I was going to be an assistant GM. I know [Lightning assistant GM] Mathieu Darche here in Tampa and I know how hard he works and he has to be in Tampa. That's something I couldn't do right now. But I think this job with having specific tasks on a daily basis, I get to stay here with my family at this point in my career but maybe I'll want to do something else later on. It's Day One but it's nice to be part of something and doing something you love and giving your advice, your views on things."
Part of Lecavalier's job will be to assist Hughes and Gorton prior to the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline on March 21 and the 2022 NHL Draft. He said he also will be involved in the Canadiens plans during free agency and the offseason.
"The last couple weeks I've been in conversations with them, with Kent quite a bit, and he has been giving me a lot of tasks because he has a lot of questions and he wants advice on different players," Lecavalier said.
Lecavalier said he did video scouting of forward
[Emil Heineman
, the 20-year-old forward who the Canadiens acquired from the Calgary Flames along with forward Tyler Pitlick, a first-round pick in the 2022 draft and a fifth-round pick in the 2023 NHL Draft for forward Tyler Toffoli on Monday.
"It's totally different and I love it," Lecavalier said. "You basically watch a specific player during the game. You're not just watching a game casually, you're following to see what the tendencies are for the player, what he does well, maybe what he lacks. You take all these notes and it's not easy because sometimes when they're young -- they're 18, 19, 20 years old -- you're trying to imagine what they're going to be like in a couple years.
"It can be tricky because one night you might be watching an NHL player and the night before it's somebody playing in Europe, in a different league, a different style. It's definitely a lot of fun trying to figure these players out, what they do, what they do really well and what they can bring to the team."
Bobrov was director of European scouting for the New York Rangers the past six seasons (2015-21). He is reuniting with Gorton, former general manager of the Rangers (2015-21).
Montreal (9-33-7), last in the NHL standings, ended an 0-8-2 skid with a 3-2 overtime win against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday.
