Denver Magazine / Denver Magazine Summer 2008 / Deck The Hall

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Deck The Hall

Colorado Avalanche President and former general manager Pierre Lacroix enjoys his new role, but still has the fire to win more hockey hardware.

Pierre Lacroix seems to be an enigma in Colorado's sports circle. The longtime former Colorado Avalanche general manager eschews the limelight. Lacroix admits he's a "stubborn guy" who as an agent battled 21 years for many NHL players, including Patrick Roy and Mike Bossy. When he became GM of the Quebec Nordiques in 1994, a year before the team moved to Denver, he turned a franchise that had been losing for more than a decade into the Eastern Conference's top team record-wise in his first season "” and then into two-time Stanley Cup champions "” after the franchise moved to Denver.

In an exclusive interview with Denver Magazine, days before his April 8 induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame, the Avalanche president sat down for a rare one-on-one interview to candidly discuss both his personal and professional achievements "” and his pending induction.

Denver Magazine: What are you thoughts on your induction into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame?

Pierre Lacroix: It's a tremendous honor. When you have a privilege to get involved in a situation like this, it's touching, it's overwhelming. But it also brings me back to the original reason why we came into town. It brings me back to the early days of working in empty boxes. Coming into this town knowing only one thing, that [Denver] had a great community and a great fan base and they were supportive of professional sports. Whatever accolades I get I share with the great people around me and I go back to all the work we had to do in 60 days to get the franchise going.

DM: What were your thoughts when you heard the team was moving from Quebec to Denver in 1995?

PL: I had the unique business situation that I was not committed to move with the franchise. They told me I could bring my entire staff. My first thing, if you come into a new market, [was] you need to have local people involved because, if you come in as a stranger and a bunch strangers, I don't think the transition would be easy. The second or third day I was here I met Charlotte Grahame [an assistant with the Denver Nuggets, whose husband and son have a hockey background]. I asked her if she would like to join us because I knew a little bit of her background. I said, "Can I steal our first employee?" That's how we started ... The first 60 days we had to go, we had 14 contracts up out of 20 players. We had 60 days not only to move the families and the players, and find doctors and trainer and build a locker room. I could name you stuff for two hours.

DM: What has been your ultimate achievement?

PL: The easy answer to you is the ultimate moments were the two Cups, '96 and 2001. But I don't think this is the answer. The answer is because of the overall picture and coming in '95 out of nowhere. Nobody knew us. We had no name. We had no identity. The ultimate achievement is there is no doubt in my mind that we were able to build an identity of a product, a sports franchise, that people could be proud of, that people could identify and people could be so loyal to idea of the Avalanche itself. So, to this day all of the achievements, the trophies, the banners, and my personal pride is the ability of this group, including myself, to build something that's going to remain for years to come.

DM: Jimmy Devellano, a former GM with the Red Wings, once said he "didn't always get along with Pierre, but you have to really respect what he did in Colorado." How important is it to have the respect and admiration of players and other organizations?

PL: About a month ago there's a league meeting in February. They always take the time to pay tribute or pay special recognition to a former general manager. Normally it comes when you're closer to the coffin. In my case I was shocked and surprised that on my second year out of my responsibility they did a tremendous honor to me. That's when I realized the respect around the room from my peers and my enemies. I call them enemies because in our business we're all trying to gather and be nice to each other but the bottom line is we want to kill each other, that's our job. When I saw on the plaque, it said decade, 1996-2006, 91 playoff wins. It's a statistic that I never paid attention to. To me it's the answer to our commitment to the community. It's the ultimate recognition that you fulfilled your commitment to your market.

DM: Your son, Eric, was among the many players traded to and from the Avalanche. Even he didn't know his impending deal to Colorado. Can you explain your philosophy about not talking about trades in the media?

PL: How about my wife [Coco]? I'm here in bed at 6:30 a.m. next to my wife. She's sleeping. True story. [Whispering] I say honey, keep sleeping, I got to go on the phone, keep sleeping. I came back in the room, took a shower and said I got to go to the office. At noon, I called her because we were announcing the trade. As a father I was a proud guy. As a business guy, I said to [the Avs staff], you make that decision because it ultimately has to be part of the way of our doing business. So don't make me vote on this. You do it. Are we a better team by making the trade? I think one of the worst things for people in any field of the business, not only in sports, is to share publicly what you're going to do. You have to trust your instincts first. You have to trust the people around you "¦ How about the guy who goes to war and he tells his neighbor we're shooting the enemy at 7 tomorrow afternoon, is that a good way to do business? So we've always done it the same way"¦ we don't want to be exposed anywhere with any conversation with how we deal and how we respect our assets. In our case it's professional sports. Assets are not cans, they're human beings. It's different than dealing with a grocery store.

DM: Is there a deal that didn't go through you wish had?

PL: A year before I traded [for Patrick Roy], I'm in the first year of my job [as the Nordiques GM] and I knew what I was getting and I knew there was some friction there [in Montreal]. Long story short, I traded for him and the minute we agreed to the trade in our room, inside our walls at Quebec I called [Montreal GM Serge Savard]. Before he talks, I said we're going ahead with the trade we discussed for Patrick Roy, he says, "I just got fired 30 seconds ago." He probably went to ownership and said I'm trading Patrick Roy, and the argument started and they fired him. You know Patrick Roy was a god in Canada and Montreal. It was 16 pages a day for a week in Montreal. The dust comes back on the furniture. We move out of Quebec and we come here and that stumble thing happens in December [1995] with the coach. It's funny in life. So, you're asking me do we regret"¦ maybe we wouldn't have won the Cup in '95. But that's hypothetical. If we get Roy that year maybe in Quebec, because we finished first in the East in our first season, six years and no playoffs with the same group of people. What are the ifs? You never know.

DM: You were a successful agent before you became a GM. Did players respect you more because of that when you took over at Quebec?

PL: I think the question is to ask them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they would agree with that. Joe Sakic, everybody, wanted out of Quebec. He's the captain, he's 22 years old and he's the star of the future when I get there and everybody wanted out of Quebec because they were never in the playoffs and it was a chaos organization. So when I take the job, [Sakic asks] first thing, "so why would I stay there?" The first meeting, I said, well you don't know me; ask your agent, he knows me for 15 years. I said we're going to do it together. We're going to print a "˜W' on your forehead. You're going to be a winner going forward. But right now you're complaining that the organization is going nowhere. But I'm telling you that I will do what I need to do. It starts with you, you're the captain. Let's engrave a "˜W' on your forehead and go forward. So, the agent says, "˜Well I can't argue with Pierre. I've known him for a long time and he's a pretty stubborn guy. We have to give him a chance.'

DM: What was your approach as a GM?

PL: Under my responsibility what we have done is [say] we have to build a puzzle. How do you build a winner? We have assets, now we need the right assets, we need the right ingredients, we need to put the recipe in place and build the best possible meal. That's what it was. We didn't do anything different. And we had to make the people believe. First thing, I've done I've been low profile. As an agent I was always away [from] the media. I think in professional sports, the players and the coaches are the figures. The executives, the people behind the walls, have no business other than answering questions when you guys needed to have questions or answers. I never walked in the locker room. The first time I walked in the locker room was to kiss the Cup in Florida. I'd never been in the players' locker room. The next time was in 2001 here when Ray Bourque had his Cup. I was in the locker room twice for the Cup.

DM: You handed over the GM reigns to Francois Giguere in 2006. You had a health scare that summer before you moved out of the GM role. How are you doing healthwise and how did that affect you?

PL: Not in a professional way, but in a personal way it gave me a different dimension of life. You know when you see the tunnel going narrow, narrow and narrower, and you're scared, not only me, but I've talked to other people that were in a situation similar to that, it gives you a different dimension about the priorities. On the other hand I'm fortunate enough"¦ it's history and it's past and I feel very good. I didn't lose any weight "” I just buy bigger clothes.

DM: How long do you plan to stay with the Avalanche?

PL: The health is good. I want to be here for another 91 wins [in the playoffs]. Our home is here. We rarely go back to Canada. We tell our families and friends to come visit us in paradise. If you had asked me back then, do you really think you could be doing this, it never crossed my mind. But the thing I'm most proud of is from everyone with the Avalanche, from the coaches to staff to players that wore the "˜A' with the pride they did, that helped build the identity and it will remain I'm convinced. And that I think is the proudest thing in the decade for me personally.

And the Inductees are...

THE COLORADO SPORTS HALL OF FAME SELECTED six MEN who had success FROM the professional, college and high school ranks for its 2008 class.

"¢ PIERRE LACROIX, Former General MANAGER OF THE COLORADO AVALANCHE.

"¢ Dow Finsterwald, former PGA Tour player and director of golf

at Broadmoor Golf Club.

"¢ Frank Shorter, won A gold Medal in the 1972 Munich Olympics and silver in The 1976 Montreal Games in the marathon; co-founder of the Bolder Boulder 10K race.

"¢ Fisher DeBerry, former Air Force Academy football coach (23 years).

"¢ Bill Noxon, former football coach at Western State College, and Fruita and

Grand Junction high schools.

"¢ Emery "Starr" Yelland, longtime radio and TV sportscaster, died in 1994.