VANCOUVER — When Émilie Castonguay was a girl, her family had a cottage in Mont-Tremblant, about two hours northwest of their home in Montreal.
She and her sisters would go skiing there. But the frigid winter temperatures in the Laurentians would often turn the snow to ice, and Émilie remembers sitting on the chairlift one morning with her older sister, Valerie, watching skiers clatter and crash on the crusty slopes below them.
“We said, ‘You know, we need to go to Vancouver. That’s where the big mountains are. We can have fresh snow all day,’” Émilie recalled Monday. “We always talked about Vancouver and how amazing it is.”
A few years later, when Émilie came home for the summer before her fourth year at Niagara University, Valerie reminded her of their conversation. On a hockey scholarship at the college above Niagara Falls on the New York side of the border, Émilie had undergone shoulder surgery and figured the injury ended any chance of a playing career in women’s hockey.
“I was lying in bed watching Friends re-runs and she came in and we had a conversation,” Émilie said. “I made a joke and she said: ‘Oh, I think we’ve known your career has been over for a long time in hockey.’ I was third-line winger in the NCAA… so obviously I wasn’t going to have much of a career playing after college. But she said: ‘You’re going to do your law degree like me. You’re going to go to law school and then you’re going to become GM for the Vancouver Canucks.’
“She passed away the next day. It was really the last conversation I ever had with her. Vancouver was where I scattered her ashes.”
Valerie Castonguay went into hospital for what her sister says was a routine surgery and died on the operating table. She was 25, one year older than Émilie. Their younger sister is Alexandra.
Émilie Castonguay did go to law school at the University of Montreal, passed her Quebec Bar exam and became a National Hockey League player agent. And on the “visions board” she kept at home, Castonguay wrote “38 Van” — her goal to work in Vancouver by age 38.
“I had put Vancouver on my vision board because I thought that’s where I want to build my life,” she said. “I don’t know how I’m going to get there. I had a business in the east… but I’d figure it out. It’s just kind of strange how the universe makes things happen sometimes.”
On Monday, the Canucks’ new president, Jim Rutherford, named Castonguay the organization’s first female assistant general manager. She turns 38 in about six weeks.
“For Vancouver and Jim to call me, and have such a vision and a plan — I love what I’m doing and I love being an agent — but if this isn’t a sign from (Valerie), I don’t know what it is,” Castonguay told Sportsnet in an interview after her Zoom call with reporters. “It’s a personal decision, but also a professional one, kind of mixed together.
“I can tell you, when I saw Jim’s name pop up on my cell phone, I told myself: I have no players in Vancouver, so he’s not calling me to talk about a player. And that’s when it kind of dawned on me that maybe this was about bringing me on. And it definitely took me a second to compose myself at that moment.”
The hiring of Castonguay is much bigger than the Canucks. With a client list that included former first-overall pick Alexis Lafrenière, ex-Canuck Antoine Roussel and Canadian national team captain Marie-Philip Poulin, she became in 2016 the first female agent certified by the NHL Players’ Association in Canada. Her role with the Canucks is ground-breaking for women in hockey.
But several times during her virtual press conference, Castonguay emphasized that she has always viewed her journey in hockey in “non-binary” terms.
“I grew up playing hockey with the boys, same as them,” she said. “I watched hockey, same as them. I played with the boys when I was young, and then I played with the girls when I was older.
“I never thought: Hey, you know, there’s only men in this industry; I can’t do this. I just put my head down and did the work. I think if you let gender get in your way or you let it intimidate you, that’s when it will do that. And I never really let that happen to me and my journey. Doors open up, and if you can do the work, you’re going to get the jobs. Hopefully this is the start of just more women getting jobs in sports and in hockey particularly. But for me, I just never let gender get in the way.”
Later, she said: “I’ve always had such a good reception from everybody in the sport. It’s important for women that want to be in the sport to know that. Sometimes you get intimidated, but you shouldn’t. If you have the knowledge and you’ve done the work, there’s a place for you here. And if it needs to start with me, then good.”
Castonguay’s duties with the Canucks will include salary-cap management, player contracts and all issues related to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Rutherford said her voice will be heard in all aspects of hockey operations, and that he hired Castonguay because she was the best candidate — not because she is a woman.
“I’m not just doing this to do this and then people are going to be happier or pacified or whatever,” Rutherford said. “It’s because I believe in this. It’s another voice from somebody that came up through the system in a different way. And I think the more voices we can have that’s coming from a different place, the more beneficial it’s going to be.”
Last week, the Canucks hired Rachel Doerrie for their analytics department, and Rutherford told Sportsnet he has his eye on another candidate, who also happens to be female, for another position.
Castonguay said the hardest part of taking the Canucks’ job was telling her player-clients she could no longer represent them.
“When she called me the other day, she was crying because she couldn’t represent me,” Roussel, traded to Arizona from Vancouver last summer, said Monday. “I’m like: ‘Are you kidding me? Like, it’s a dream job, like everybody wanted. Dude, it’s the best thing that can happen.’
“She’ll do awesome. She’s a great, great woman. She’s the best. I think she’ll have a tremendous career in the National Hockey League.”
Asked if he thinks Castonguay will one day become the NHL’s first female general manager, Roussel said: “One hundred per cent. I think she’ll be the one.”
If that’s the case, it may have to be with the Canucks. Castonguay said she wants to stay in Vancouver.
“I’ve spent a lot of time in Whistler and Tofino, and Squamish is probably my favourite place,” she said. “Everything from Granville Island to Stanley Park, just everything, Vancouver is my place, where I feel at home the most in the world. It’s crazy to say that, but I’m not even making it up. That’s where I feel at home.
“I plan on being there for a long time, for the rest of my life if I can. I’m taking this challenge very seriously. Failure is not an option here for us. We’re going to do things the right way and with the right people, and players are going to feel like they want to be there. That’s my goal.”
Castonguay first visited Vancouver in 2009, the year after her sister died. She brought Valerie’s ashes as a way to fulfill the girls’ promise of going to Vancouver together.
Émilie scattered the ashes on the shore as the sun was setting across the Pacific.
“Vancouver is the place that I always wanted to be,” Castonguay said. “I’ve always felt my sister there. Every time I have a chance to go on vacation, that’s where I go. I have a very personal relationship with that city. And so for it to turn out this way, it’s just kind of serendipitous.”
GUADALAJARA, Mexico – Canada’s Marina Stakusic fell 6-4, 6-3 to Poland’s Magdalena Frech in the quarterfinals of the Guadalajara Open tennis tournament on Friday.
The 19-year-old from Mississauga, Ont., won 61 per cent of her first-serve points and broke on just one of her six opportunities.
Stakusic had upset top-seeded Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (0) on Thursday night to advance.
In the opening round, Stakusic defeated Slovakia’s Anna Karolína Schmiedlová 6-2, 6-4 on Tuesday.
The fifth-seeded Frech won 62 per cent of her first-serve points and converted on three of her nine break point opportunities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Alejandro Kirk’s long single with the bases loaded provided the Toronto Blue Jays with a walk-off 4-3 win in the 11th inning of their series opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday.
With the Cardinals outfield in, Kirk drove a shot off the base of the left-field wall to give the Blue Jays (70-78) their fourth win in 11 outings and halt the Cardinals’ (74-73) two-game win streak before 30,380 at Rogers Centre.
Kirk enjoyed a two-hit, two-RBI outing.
Erik Swanson (2-2) pitched a perfect 11th inning for the win, while Cardinals reliever Ryan Fernandez (1-5) took the loss.
Blue Jays starter Kevin Gausman enjoyed a seven-inning, 104-pitch outing. He surrendered his two runs on nine hits and two walks and fanned only two Cardinals.
He gave way to reliever Genesis Cabrera, who gave up a one-out homer to Thomas Saggese, his first in 2024, that tied the game in the eighth.
The Cardinals started swiftly with four straight singles to open the game. But they exited the first inning with only two runs on an RBI single to centre from Nolan Arendao and a fielder’s choice from Saggese.
Gausman required 28 pitches to escape the first inning but settled down to allow his teammates to snatch the lead in the fourth.
He also deftly pitched out of threats from the visitors in the fifth, sixth and seventh thanks to some solid defence, including Will Wagner’s diving stop, which led to a double play to end the fifth inning.
George Springer led off with a walk and stole second base. He advanced to third on Nathan Lukes’s single and scored when Vladimir Guerrero Jr. knocked in his 95th run with a double off the left-field wall.
Lukes scored on a sacrifice fly to left field from Spencer Horwitz. Guerrero touched home on Kirk’s two-out single to right.
In the ninth, Guerrero made a critical diving catch on an Arenado grounder to throw out the Cardinals’ infielder, with reliever Tommy Nance covering first. The defensive gem ended the inning with a runner on second base.
St. Louis starter Erick Fedde faced the minimum night batters in the first three innings thanks to a pair of double plays. He lasted five innings, giving up three runs on six hits and a walk with three strikeouts.
ON DECK
Toronto ace Jose Berrios (15-9) will start the second of the three-game series on Saturday. He has a six-game win streak.
The Cardinals will counter with righty Kyle Gibson (8-6).
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
CALGARY – Mired in their first four-game losing skid in 20 years, the Calgary Stampeders are going back to Jake Maier at quarterback on Saturday after he was benched for a game.
It won’t be an easy assignment.
Visiting McMahon Stadium are the Eastern Conference-leading Montreal Alouettes (10-2) who own the CFL’s best record. The Stampeders (4-8) have fallen to last in the Western Conference.
“Six games is plenty of time, but also it is just six games,” said Maier. “We’ve got to be able to get on the right track.”
Calgary is in danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
“I do still believe in this team,” said Stampeders’ head coach and general manager Dave Dickenson. “I want to see improvement, though. I want to see guys on a weekly basis elevating their game, and we haven’t been doing that.”
Maier is one of the guys under the microscope. Two weeks ago, the second-year starter threw four interceptions in a 35-20 home loss to the Edmonton Elks.
After his replacement, rookie Logan Bonner, threw five picks in last week’s 37-16 loss to the Elks in Edmonton, the football is back in Maier’s hands.
“Any time you fail or something doesn’t go your way in life, does it stink in the moment? Yeah. But then the days go on and you learn things about yourself and you learn how to prepare a little bit better,” said Maier. “It makes you mentally tougher.”
Dickenson wants to see his quarterback making better decisions with the football.
“Things are going to happen, interceptions will happen, but try to take calculated risks, rather than just putting the ball up there and hoping that we catch it,” said Dickenson.
A former quarterback himself, he knows the importance of that vital position.
“You cannot win without good quarterback play,” Dickenson said. “You’ve got to be able to make some plays — off-schedule plays, move-around plays, plays that break down, plays that aren’t designed perfectly, but somehow you found the right guy, and then those big throws where you’re taking that hit.”
But it’s going to take a team effort, and that includes the club’s receiving corp.
“We always have to band together because we need everything to go right for our receivers to get the ball,” said Nik Lewis, the Stampeders’ receivers coach. “The running back has to pick up the blitz, the o-line has to block, the quarterback has to make the right reads, and then give us a catchable ball.”
Lewis brings a unique perspective to this season’s frustrations as he was a 22-year-old rookie in Calgary in 2004 when the Stamps went 4-14 under coach Matt Dunigan. They turned it around the next season and haven’t missed the playoffs since.”
“Thinking back and just looking at it, there’s just got to be an ultimate belief that you can get it done. Look at Montreal, they were 6-7 last year and they’ve gone 18-2 since then,” said Lewis.
Montreal is also looking to rebound from a 37-23 loss to the B.C. Lions last week. But for head coach Jason Maas, he says his team’s mindset doesn’t change, regardless of what happened the previous week.
“Last year when we went through a four-game losing streak, you couldn’t tell if we were on a four-game winning streak or a four-game losing streak by the way the guys were in the building, the way we prepared, the type of work ethic we have,” said Maas. “All our standards are set, so that’s all we focus on.”
While they may have already clinched a playoff spot, Alouettes’ quarterback Cody Fajardo says this closing stretch remains critical because they want to finish the season strong, just like last year when they won their final five regular-season games before ultimately winning the Grey Cup.
“It doesn’t matter about what you do at the beginning of the year,” said Fajardo. “All that matters is how you end the year and how well you’re playing going into the playoffs so that’s what these games are about.”
The Alouettes’ are kicking off a three-game road stretch, one Fajardo looks forward to.
“You understand what kind of team you have when you play on the road because it’s us versus the world mentality and you can feel everybody against you,” said Fajardo. “Plus, I always tend to find more joy in silencing thousands of people than bringing thousands of people to their feet.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
