champion: Building a Carriere the catalyst in 2004 championship run RYAN MCCRACKEN


rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com Twitter: MHNMcCracken


From coach and general manager to Western Hockey League champion, and now back with the team as a scout — Rick Carriere has truly run the gamut with the Medicine Hat Tigers.


Carriere’s road to the top in Medicine Hat started partway through the 1997-98 season. On the way to their worst record in nearly two decades, Carriere was tasked with helping turn


the ship around as the team’s new head coach and director of hockey operations.


It was a tumultuous time in the team’s history — they’d only manage 16 wins that season and went on to miss the playoffs for five years in a row — but Carriere almost immediately began laying the foundation for an unforgettable run to come.


“It was 2004 that it all came together,” said Carriere, adding it was a long road to the playoffs, let alone the championship. “As


we started moving through the rest of that (1997-98) season I think it was clear that we needed to change the culture a little bit. Talking to (owners) Darrell and Brent Maser, they were in agreement, so we moved forward and started to just work with young kids, bring in young guys and keep developing. We just built our team up through the draft. We took our lumps, that’s for sure, but the ownership was really on board and very supportive all the way along.”


CONGRATULATIONS ON 50 YEARS!


CONGRATULATIONS ON 50 YEARS!


From making the right draft picks to executing smart trades, Carriere and the Tigers started to build momentum as a franchise, once again creeping toward the culture of success that put them on the national hockey map in the late '80s.


It was a tough sell at times, as Carriere says he would have to inform some of the team’s veteran recruits that their impact would ultimately be felt a few years after their window of eligibility expired. But the right players bought in, and the culture began to shift.


S o u t h S o u t h C o u n t r y C o u n t r y 18 | MEDICINE HAT TIGERS


“We’d pick up guys along the way who just kind of helped with our culture, guys like Vern Fiddler (2000-01). He came in and did such a good job as an older player with some of those young guys. He kind of helped set the tone. We found Curtis Austring (2002-03) and some of these guys who were 19-20 years old and maybe didn’t really have a role with the teams they were on before, but we felt we would bring them in and we could use their leadership, their maturity,” said Carriere. “It’s like we told those guys, ‘You’re


not going to be here when this thing turns, but you’re a big part of where this team is going to go.’ That was back in probably around 1999-2000. I think what happened there around that time is I kind of took myself out of the head coaching role and just worked as the GM.”


It was shortly after Carriere made that decision to step away from the bench and into the office that the Tigers recruited a man who would shape the franchise for years to come. A man named Willie Desjardins.


“Willie was available and we brought him in. He just made such an impact, such a difference for the whole organization,” said Carriere. “Through the ownership and through Willie’s talents, I think the Tigers were able to get into the playoffs. And then it was just that we had the talent, we had the leadership — we just didn’t have all the playoff experience. But it was like every game we were getting more and more experience.”


Carriere added Desjardins simply has a way with his players. He seemed capable of tapping into unseen potential and finding new levels. He’d take a misfit from another team and turn them into a household name in the Gas City.


“We’d have a hole to fill and we’d find a player, and regardless of what level they were at, Willie just seemed to find a role. He was able to reach those guys and put them into roles that they’d succeed in. He just kind of put that team together from '02-04,” said


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32