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Habs sign McGill grad Mathieu Darche
MONTREAL - The Montreal Canadiens signed forward Mathieu Darche
to a one-year, two-way contract, Wednesday. An unrestricted free
agent and a product of the McGill University Redmen, he played 80
games last season for Portland in the American Hockey League,
scoring 66 points, including a team-leading 31 goals.
Darche, a 32-year-old native of St. Laurent, Que., has played in
the National Hockey League with Columbus, Nashville, San Jose and
Tampa Bay. In 101 career NHL games, he has scored eight goals and
24 points with 26 penalty minutes.
Darche became the 10th player out of McGill to make the NHL and is
one of 158 Canadian university players who has made the leap to
that level. About to enter his 10th professional season, the
6-foot-1, 210-pound left wing originally signed as a free agent
with Columbus in 2000 after four seasons with McGill, where he was
an All-Canadian, served as captain, earned Team MVP honours and
registered 170 points, including 78 goals, in 133 games. He also
played one season of varsity football at McGill and graduated with
a commerce degree in 2000.
If Darche cracks the Canadiens lineup, he would become the third
McGill grad to do so and the first since left winger Jack McGill
was with the Habs from 1934 to 1937. Nels Crutchfield, a
defenceman, was the other Redmen player to skate for the Canadiens
in 1934-35.
In eight American Hockey League campaigns, he has a 196-222-418
record with 286 PIMs in 520 regular-season contests with Syracuse,
Milwaukee, Hershey, Worcester, Norfolk and Portland. In 2003-04, he
won the Calder Cup championship with Milwaukee. He has been the top
goal-scorer with five different AHL teams.
Darche's 34-year-old brother Jean-Philippe, a former all-star
linebacker at McGill, recently completed his ninth season in the
National Football League. He played the last two seasons with the
Kansas City Chiefs after seven years as a long snapper with the
Seattle Seahawks.
Among the McGill players who made the NHL, two earned the league's
rookie-of-the-year honours -- goaltender Jack Gelineau with the
Bruins in 1949-50 and Russ Blinco with the Montreal Maroons in
1933-34.
FORMER McGILL
PLAYERS IN THE NHL
Bert Lindsay (goaltender; played 1917-19 with Montreal Wanderers
and Toronto Arenas)
Sam Rothschild (left wing; played 1924-28 with Montreal Maroons,
NY Americans & Pittsburgh Pirates)
Lester Patrick (defenceman; played 1926-28 with New York Rangers;
also coached from 1926-39)
*Russ Blinco (forward; played 1933-39 with Montreal Maroons and
Chicago Blackhawks)
Nels Crutchfield (defenceman; played 1934-35 with Montreal
Canadiens)
Jack McGill (left wing; played 1934-37 with Montreal
Canadiens)
Johnny Peirson (forward; played 1946-58 with Boston Bruins)
*Jack Gelineau (goaltender; played 1948-54 with Boston &
Chicago)
Reggie Sinclair (right wing; played 1950-53 with New York &
Detroit)
Mathieu Darche (left wing; played 2000-08 with Columbus,
Nashville, San Jose, Tampa Bay)
*voted NHL Rookie of the Year
SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
