Long-time fan favourite, Simon Gagné, doesn’t seem to be on the Philadelphia Flyers’ radar – at least for the time being – after he was just named General Manager of the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL.
The news comes two days after Hall of Fame goaltender, Patrick Roy, left the team and his posts as head coach and General Manager.
Gagné was behind the bench alongside Roy as an assistant coach. The Remparts just won the Gilles-Courteau Trophy for the first time in their franchise’s history, and they then went all the way and won the Memorial Cup – also for the first time.
They finished the regular season with a whopping 53-12-1-2 record, then swept their way through to the QMJHL Finals, taking down Charlottetown, Rimouski, and Gatineau in the minimum 12 games. They then beat Halifax – 2nd-best in the QMJHL – in the Finals in 6 games, setting up their Memorial Cup placement.
Quebec ran through the Kamloops Blazers – the host of the tournament – 8-3 in their first game, defeated the WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds 3-1, but then fell to Flyers prospect J.R. Avon and the Peterborough Petes 4-2. Nevertheless, they topped their group and automatically advanced to the Finals, where they defeated the Thunderbirds again but this time by a score of 5-0.
Patrick Roy had announced before the season began that this would be his final one, ending a historic and lengthy run with the team he had been a franchise owner for since 1997-98 and had 2 stints as head coach and general manager – with an intermittent pit stop in the NHL for 3 years.
As for Gagné, we all remember him fondly as a former first round pick in the 1998 NHL Entry Draft. Gagne spent 3 years with the Remparts as a junior from 1996-1999 – first with the Beauport Harfangs who then relocated to Quebec City in 1997. In his draft season he scored 30 goals and 69 points in 53 games before adding 11 goals and 16 points in 12 post-season appearances. The following season he scored 50 goals and 120 points in just 61 games and then added 17 points in 13 playoff games.
Gagné spent the first 10 years of his career in Philadelphia, where he scored 259 goals and 524 points in 664 games. He scored 27+ goals in 5 different seasons, 33+ goals in 4 different seasons, and scored 40+ goals in back to back years in 2005-06 and 2006-07. Across 90 playoff games for the Flyers, he scored 32 goals and 47 points, which included the Game 6 overtime winner in the Eastern Conference Finals against Tampa Bay in 2004, the game-winner in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals against Boston in 2010, and the game-winner in Game 7 against Boston that very same series to complete the epic comeback.
Gagné’s tenure ended with a bitter taste in his mouth after he was traded shortly after being defeated by the Chicago Blackhawks in the 2010 Stanley Cup Final. Paul Holmgren at the time told him he was going to be re-signed, but then ended up trading him to Tampa Bay for Matt Walker and a fourth-round pick.
Gagné scored 40 points in 63 games for Tampa Bay, signed with the Los Angeles Kings in the summer of 2011 on a two-year deal and won the Cup in 2011-12. He returned to Philadelphia in the lockout-shortened season of 2012-13 ahead of the trade deadline in exchange for a fourth-round pick. He scored in his first game back and finished the year with 11 points in 27 games for the Orange and Black. Gagné took a year off before signing with the Bruins on a PTO, where he scored 3 goals and 4 points in 23 games. He had to leave the club due to the death of his father, the Bruins cut him off the roster, and he subsequently announced his retirement.
Internationally, Gagné represented Team Canada on numerous occasions, winning silver at the World Junior Championships in 1999, silver at the World Championships in 2005, gold at the Winter Olympics in 2022, and gold at the World Cup in 2004. He scored 7 goals and 8 points in 7 games at the WJC and 6 goals and 19 points across 26 games at the senior level. He was originally named to the summer camp team for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver but had to pull out due to a groin injury.
With the Flyers bringing back several former players – with a modern twist – Gagné could’ve been seen as a possible target for the front office, however with a new and much improved role with the Remparts, look for Gagne to take full advantage of the opportunity before ever stepping foot back into the NHL.
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