Getting Giguere as Good as Gold

Al Coates could pat himself on the back and say he’d predicted that Jean-Sebastien Giguere would be a phenomenal playoff performer, or that Giguere would become the “monster” who stared down the defending Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings and lifted the Mighty Ducks to the second round of the playoffs.

The truth is, Coates didn’t know for sure, although he suspected Giguere’s talents ran deep.

Coates, who last week became the Ducks’ senior vice president of business operations, was the general manager of the Calgary Flames in 1997 and liked Giguere enough to acquire the then-20-year-old goalie from Carolina, along with Andrew Cassels, for popular forward Gary Roberts and goalie Trevor Kidd. In drawing up his protected list for the 2000 expansion draft, Coates decided to keep Giguere and Fred Brathwaite, even though that meant he could protect only three defensemen and seven forwards.

Coates, however, was fired by the Flames before the draft and his replacement, Craig Button, decided to protect only Brathwaite so he could keep more skaters. Button traded Giguere to the Ducks for a second-round draft pick, rather than lose him without compensation.

The rest, as they say, is playoff history.

“Giguere, in our estimation, was a sure-bet NHL player,” Coates said. “To what level, you don’t know. We did the same thing in trading Joe Nieuwendyk [to Dallas in 1995] for Jarome Iginla. We knew Iginla was a sure-bet NHL player but to what level, we didn’t know.

“I’m not going to tell you I knew this all along about Giguere. One thing I knew is that he had terrific natural ability, but something else came into play with the goaltending coach [Francois Allaire] here in Anaheim.”

Coates spent 20 years in the Flames’ organization, beginning as the club’s public relations director and rising to executive vice president and general manager in 1995. After he was fired, he became vice president and general manager of the Hartford Wolf Pack, the New York Rangers’ American Hockey League affiliate.

He was hired by the Ducks to replace Doug Moss, who left in December to become president of the Phoenix Coyotes.

Coates’ duties with the Ducks include marketing, ticket sales, community relations and the operation of their Disney Ice practice rink. He said he’d had opportunities to speak with sponsors and season-ticket holders and hopes to increase the levels of support from both areas to where they were in the Ducks’ early years, when they filled 99.3% of their seats over their first five seasons.

“There is no greater marketing tool than a winning team,” he said. “I think there’s a great opportunity here, but it’s going to take a lot of little baby steps. We can’t afford to take any steps backward. We can’t lose one season-ticket holder or sponsor. That’s how you build your base.”

Settling in and learning his way around have prevented him from spending much time with Giguere and marveling at the coincidences that have reunited them.

“I just said hello and congratulated him [Wednesday] night,” Coates said. “I’ve been staying away from the team. That’s really not my job.”

But Giguere’s performance has certainly made his job easier.

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Pulling Out All the Stops

*--* Goaltenders with the best goals-against averages in the playoffs (through Wednesday): NAME, TEAM GMS MINS GA AVG Chris Osgood, St Louis 4 239 4 1.00 Jean-Sebastien Giguere, Mighty Ducks 4 290 6 1.24 Patrick Lalime, Ottawa 4 262 6 1.37 Jeff Hackett, Boston 2 120 3 1.50 Marty Turco, Dallas 4 238 7 1.76 Patrick Roy, Colorado 4 238 7 1.76 Roman Cechmanek, Philadelphia 4 320 11 2.06 Curtis Joseph, Detroit 4 289 10 2.08

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