The Blackhawks have completed an interview with Mathieu Darche for the General Manager position, the team announced on Wednesday.
Darche is currently the Director of Hockey Operations for the Tampa Bay Lightning and has reportedly been in the running for GM positions in Montreal and Vancouver in recent months.
Chicago previously completed interviews with current Interim GM Kyle Davidson, Carolina Assistant GM Eric Tulsky, former Montreal Assistant GM Scott Mellanby and St. Louis Vice President of Hockey Operations Peter Chiarelli and Chicago Cubs Assistant GM Jeff Greenberg. The team plans to continue updates as more General Manager interviews are finished.
About Mathieu Darche
Darche joined Tampa Bay in May 2019 in his current role as the Director of Hockey Operations, where he assists in all aspects of player personnel decisions, analytics, player development, contract preparation and negotiation, budgeting, scheduling and cap tracking, according to his team bio page.
A veteran of 250 NHL games played with the Lightning, Blue Jackets, Predators, Sharks and Canadiens, Darche retired as a player in 2013. He also captured the AHL’s Calder Cup with the Milwaukee Admirals in 2004. As a player, he was part of the NHLPA negotiating committee during the 2012-13 NHL work stoppage and also served on the negotiating committee of the Professional Hockey Players Association for the AHL’s collective bargaining agreement.
Before joining the Lightning front office, Darche worked for Delmar International, a Canadian customs broker and freight forwarder, as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing. He also served five years on the board of Ronald McDonald House and spent six years as a television hockey analyst on RDS in Canada.
Darche graduated from McGill University in Montreal in 2000 with a commerce degree, majoring in marketing and international business, and was named to the school’s sports hall of fame in 2015.
