Assistant GM Gauthier Finds Talent Where Others Fail to Look

Pierre Gauthier knows what it’s like to have the answer to the question on everyone’s lips. He is used to the extra eyes and ears that followed him when the Quebec Nordiques had the No. 1 pick of the NHL draft.

And the lively Gauthier, once one of Montreal’s top schoolboy scorers, has learned how to talk without telling anything.

“You want to keep the drama,” he said. “Then there has to be a little respect for the other candidates--and you always want to leave yourself open to do whatever you want, including changing your mind.”

In three of the last four years, the Nordiques have had the No. 1 selection overall, and Gauthier (pronounced GO-tee-ay), as the Nordiques’ scouting director, had the responsibility of making it. He took Mats Sundin, Owen Nolan and Eric Lindros, who was eventually auctioned to Philadelphia.

This year, he will take the lead for the Mighty Ducks, running their first draft of young prospects Saturday in his old home of Quebec City. The Ducks will pick either fourth or fifth in Saturday’s entry draft. Next year, when the Ducks and the Florida Panthers split the first two picks, he could be making the No. 1 selection again.

Gauthier, 40, whose selections helped move the Nordiques from the bottom of the NHL to the playoffs, is the Ducks’ assistant general manager--and at the bottom again. He is in charge of amateur selections, with General Manager Jack Ferreira heading the expansion draft Thursday.

“As far as I’m concerned, Anaheim hired two general managers in Jack Ferreira and Pierre Gauthier,” said Mike Smith, Winnipeg Jets general manager. “Pierre has the ability to be a general manager, and in time he will be a general manager.

“He knows what it’s like to be in an organization that’s at the bottom, how hard you have to work to get out of the hole.”

In 12 years with the Nordiques, Gauthier built a reputation as an astute judge of young talent, willing to go his own way in search of players--even if it meant a 14-hour overnight boat trip from Stockholm to Helsinki followed by a slow boat to Tallin, Estonia, that left him sweating and green at the gills.

“He’s energetic, bright, smart and educated, and he knows where to find players,” said Jim Devellano, a Detroit Red Wings senior vice president. “I think his biggest strength as it applies now is knowing where to go to find players. He’s been all over.”

Gauthier and Ferreira, who have known each other a dozen years, were among the first NHL scouts to scour the former Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc. They got to know each other well enough on the bland-food, Spartan-hotel circuit that they were willing to work together in Anaheim even though they had competed for the No. 1 job.

“When you go on scouting trips, traveling in Europe together for 10 or 12 days, eating meals together, you get to know someone that well,” Ferreira said. “He’s an excellent judge of talent, and he has a vision where he sees the whole picture.”

Gauthier’s influence broadened the Nordiques’ scope. Russian players Andrei Kovalenko and Valeri Kamensky have been part of their recent success.

And in 1989, Gauthier broke with another tradition when he took Sundin, a Swede, first in the draft. No European had previously been selected No. 1.

“I think half the teams would have taken him and the others would have said, ‘No way,’ ” Gauthier said.

“I feel very strongly--sometimes people do have a bias toward certain kinds of players. I don’t care where he is from, where he was born, what position he plays, what league, what background. Just give me the good player, no matter what.”

Gauthier has a reputation for thinking analytically, which comes through training. His playing career fell by the wayside when he stayed home and went to school instead of going away to play junior hockey. He graduated from Syracuse and went on to Minnesota, where he has completed all requirements except his dissertation for a doctorate in athletics administration.

His philosophy on the Ducks’ first draft, though, is complete.

“It’s not going to be any different than any other year,” Gauthier said. “ We look for the upside. I believe in drafting guys who have a chance to be good--some might be longer shots than others. But if I think he’s only going to be average, I’m not going to draft him. Average players you can get in trades.”