The Vancouver Canucks announced on Monday that they had hired Émilie Castonguay as their new Assistant General Manager, making her the first woman in Canucks history to hold the position.
The 38 year old former NCAA hockey player joins a Canucks front office that includes President of Hockey Ops and Interim GM Jim Rutherford, VP of Hockey Ops Stan Smyl, and fellow AGM Derek Clancey.
Castonguay becomes the 2nd woman to hold the role of Assistant GM in NHL history, and the first since Angela Gorgone held the role with Anaheim in 1996. Holding a law degree from the University of Montreal, Castonguay joined Momentum Hockey as the first woman to be certified as an NHLPA player agent in 2016.
Amongst her client base, the Montreal native counted former 1st overall draft pick Alexis Lafreniere and Team Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin. As a result of her new role however, she will be unable to represent clients moving forward as an agent.
In a press release posted to the Canucks website, Castonguay stated “It is an honour to join the Vancouver Canucks and I am grateful to Jim and the Aquilini family for the opportunity…The Canucks have a passionate fanbase and an exciting young team with a bright future. I can’t wait to help build a winning organization that continues to grow and challenges for championship.”
In a 2020 list released by SportsNet, the media outlet named Castonguay one of the 25 most powerful women in hockey. During her virtual press conference, she made mention of the fact that working not only in hockey, but in Vancouver in particular were lifelong goals of hers.
Though her journey has been far from easy, Castonguay remarked how she never viewed hockey in terms of gender as she was coming up through the Hockey Canada system. “I grew up playing hockey with the boys, same as them,” she said. “I watched hockey, same as them. I played with the boys when I was young, and then I played with the girls when I was older. I never thought: Hey, you know, there’s only men in this industry; I can’t do this. I just put my head down and did the work. I think if you let gender get in your way or you let it intimidate you, that’s when it will do that. And I never really let that happen to me and my journey. Doors open up, and if you can do the work, you’re going to get the jobs. Hopefully this is the start of just more women getting jobs in sports and in hockey particularly. But for me, I just never let gender get in the way.”
The announcement comes on the heels of the Canucks hiring 25 year old Rachel Doerrie as an Analyst in their Hockey Analytics department making Vancouver one of the more diverse management groups in the Old Boys Club that is hockey. While Castonguay will have a say in all hockey related decisions, her area of focus will reportedly be related to CBA matters, salary cap issues, and contract negotiations.
The Canucks new AGM was quick to point out how excited she was for the opportunity, while mentioning that “Vancouver is the place that I always wanted to be”.