With Mentor On Hand, Darche Earns First NHL Win As GM
When the Islanders earned their first win of the season, it wasn’t just a milestone for Mathieu Darche — it was a full-circle moment. His mentor and former boss, Julien Brisebois, was in the building.
ELMONT, NY — When we spoke with New York Islanders head coach Patrick Roy following Thursday’s morning skate, he made a statement that set the tone for the night.
“We know what we have to do tonight. We want to give our GM his first win of the season. That’s what we have in mind for tonight’s game.”
Narrator voice: And they did just that — beating the back-to-back Stanley Cup finalist Edmonton Oilers 4–2 in front of the Blue & Orange faithful.
For Mathieu Darche, it was a milestone moment years in the making. And fittingly, in the building to see it all was his mentor, Julien Brisebois.
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s general manager was at UBS Arena on official Team Canada Olympic business — though one can imagine it was special to watch his protégé notch career win No. 1 behind the scenes of his new team.
(Is it ridiculous to throw Matthew Schaefer’s name in the Olympic conversation?)
Without Brisebois, Darche wouldn’t just have missed out on becoming an NHL general manager — he might never have returned to hockey at all after hanging up the skates following a nine-year NHL career.
After his retirement in 2013, Darche put his business degree from McGill University to good use, serving as Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Delmar International Inc. for 13 years. Then, one day, Brisebois called him to a meeting in Montreal.
The two had remained close friends since their days with the Montreal Canadiens — Darche as a player from 2009 to 2012, and Brisebois as director of hockey operations from 2009 to 2011.
That meeting changed everything. Brisebois offered Darche the director of hockey operations job with the Lightning in 2019, pulling him back into the game. Darche spent the next six seasons learning under Brisebois, earning a promotion to assistant general manager in 2023.
“I’m very fortunate in Tampa that I was traveling with the team everywhere,” Darche said. “I joke, I spent more time with Julien than I did with my wife for the last six years.”
Under Brisebois, Darche won two Stanley Cups and continually credited his mentor for helping him reach the next level — even when GM interviews elsewhere didn’t pan out.
“I couldn’t say anything better about Julien Brisebois and how supportive he’s been through all this,” Darche said during his introductory press conference this past summer. “Even in the last few years, he’s been outstanding. When I called him to tell him [I got the Islanders’ GM job], I was almost emotional.
So honestly, he’s been extremely supportive, and he only wants the best for me and for the Tampa Bay Lightning. But I told him, next time we play the conference finals, it’ll be the other way around.”
When the final buzzer sounded Thursday — and the Islanders finally secured that first win of the season — it wasn’t just a sigh of relief for the team. It was a full-circle moment for Mathieu Darche, with the man who believed in him and guided him on hand for the glorious occasion.
