"Yet despite the chaos, Darche insists he never felt overwhelmed. The reason, he says, comes back to his six years spent working alongside Julien BriseBois in Tampa Bay. "Learning from Julien all those years, I felt prepared," Darche told Pierre LeBrun in The Athletic. "Was it a lot? Yes. But I enjoyed the grind of it. That's what you want to do.""
"BriseBois gave Darche a front-row seat to every aspect of running a modern NHL franchise - contracts, trades, analytics, and even the subtle art of communication. Perhaps the biggest lesson Darche absorbed was to remove emotion from decision-making, a trait that came in handy during the blockbuster trade of Noah Dobson to Montreal. "That's something I learned from Julien: take the emotion out of the decision," Darche explained."
""Someone asked me if the Islanders were hiring Julien BriseBois 2.0," he said. "No. There's a lot of things I've learned from Julien, but me and him have different personalities. I can't try to be Julien. That would be phony. I have to be me." For Darche, that means a collaborative, open style, where communication with players and staff is a central focus."
Mathieu Darche assumed the New York Islanders general manager role on May 23 and immediately faced the NHL Combine, the draft, free agency, and arbitration cases within weeks. He credited six years working with Julien BriseBois in Tampa Bay for preparing him to handle the workload and to enjoy the grind. BriseBois exposed him to contracts, trades, analytics, and communication, and taught him to remove emotion from decision-making, a lesson that influenced the Noah Dobson trade. Darche emphasized that he will not mimic BriseBois. He described a collaborative, open leadership style focused on communication and treating staff and players as partners.
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