As Kucherov is putting up another Hart-worthy season, I thought I would share this story I heard on a French podcast. La Poche Bleue is hosted by former Canadiens players Max Lapierre and Guillaume Latendresse. They had Arizona Coyotes head coach André Tourigny on for an episode in 2022. He was a great guest with tons of interesting stories. Tourigny coached Kucherov in juniors for Rouyn-Noranda and he spoke about him at the [30-minute mark](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AH1tomBwA&t=1800s). Here is my rough translation of the story.
Guillaume Latendresse: You coached Kucherov for a bit in juniors, did you think he was going to become such a massive all-star in the NHL?
Tourigny: (Smiling) Yes!
(reaction at 30:08 in the link)
GL: Really??
Tourigny: Yeah. It started in Crimmitschau, Germany at the U18 with Team Canada in 2011. Al Murray (from the Lightning) was involved also with that U18 Canadian team and that’s how I met him. Al and I had a good relationship, so we hung out a bit. One day I’m in the stands watching Russia. They have Grigorenko and Yakupov playing on the first line and Kucherov is on the second. I’m watching this, and everybody keeps going on and on about Grigorenko and Yakupov. I don’t know, but I keep thinking the other guy on the 2nd line is really good. So at some point I go see Al Murray and I ask him, what do you think about Kucherov? Al looks at me and asks me to stay quiet. Don’t talk about this player out loud. So, I carry on with my business. Fast forward to the draft and who drafts Kucherov in the 2nd round? Al Murray with Tampa Bay.
After being drafted by the Lightning, Kucherov goes to the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL. My good friend Patrick Roy (GM of the Remparts at the time) calls me (Tourigny) because Quebec’s team has 3 Europeans (QMJHL teams can only have 2), so he **must** trade one. The Buffalo Sabres sent Grigorenko back down to Quebec early in the season, which Roy did not expect. Roy had already promised a spot to Nick Sorensen, so Kucherov had to go. So Patrick tells me he MUST send me Kucherov. Why? Because the only other team Kucherov could go to is Rimouski, which is Quebec’s main competition for the season. In my head I’m thinking this makes no sense, why would he want to just send me this great player? There must be something wrong.
Roy told me his price and I declined. I found it too expensive because Kucherov had had a shoulder injury and was injured to start the season. He was in and out of Quebec’s lineup as they were alternating players. I kept thinking there was a catch somewhere, something like off-ice issues or whatever. There had to be something… I was also skeptical because our team in Rouyn wasn’t quite at a stage where we could go all-in to win, though Kucherov still really excited me. I still adored that player. Quebec had 14 days to get rid of the extra European, so Roy calls me back a few days later and tells me “Listen you f\*\*\*\*\*\* moron, you will take Kucherov and give me a 2nd round pick. Then you will call me at the end of the season to say thanks. I don’t want to hear another f\*\*\*\*\*\* word.” I thought to myself wow he’s really intense about this. I know Patrick and he’s not usually like that. Roy and I had a good relationship and had done many deals in the past to help each other out. So he told me to stop messing around and just take the deal. That’s how we reached an agreement for Kucherov. It’s the only time in my life that a deal happened this way.
Then, Kucherov got to Rouyn. He wasn’t good, he was phenomenal. He was worth far more than what we paid for him. I was at the U20 World Juniors (for Team Canada) earlier that season and Kucherov beat us. I had 9 different experiences with Team Canada in my career. The one time I didn’t get a medal is the year Kucherov beat us in the semi-finals. So I get to the airport to pick up Kucherov in Rouyn and I start asking him about that game. He was able to describe to me almost every single shift in detail – who was matched up against him, how he was sometimes taking longer shifts when he saw a more favorable match up… The entire time in the car I was thinking to myself that this guy is on a different level. It was clear he’s a hockey genius. (Playing for Rouyn-Noranda, Kucherov lit up the Quebec Remparts in the playoffs, scoring 6 points in a 6-1 win to eliminate the Remparts.) We then lost to Halifax who had Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin. They went on to win the Memorial Cup.
Once we were eliminated, I received a text from Tampa Bay saying they had asked Kucherov to go on the taxi squad (reserve players for the playoffs) for their AHL team. They asked if I thought Kucherov was ready to play at that level. I told them if Kucherov is in your reserve players, you are guaranteed to go far in your playoffs and that he is easily one of the 3 best junior players in the world. If Kucherov doesn’t make your team, you have an extraordinary team. Tampa wasn’t too sure because they had a strong AHL team so they didn’t expect Kucherov to make an impact.
The next season in 2013 I went to the Colorado Avalanche as an assistant for Patrick Roy. During training camp, I received a text from Julien BriseBois saying that Kucherov was the best player at their AHL camp and it wasn’t close. Kuch scored 13 goals in 17 games and that was all the time he needed in the AHL.
Source is here at around the 30 minute mark.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AH1tomBwA&t=1800s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4AH1tomBwA&t=1800s)
by clockbergjr
4 Comments
That whole triplets line were absolutely finds by our scouting dept
Thank you for translating and posting this! It’s great. Kuch is such a joy to watch.
One thing is hard to remember, when Kuch makes a bad pass, like an incredible QB, most of the time the fault goes to the guy who didn’t go where Kuch expected him to.
And then there’s plays where he passes to players where only him and the hockey gods know where that player is going to be.
Thank you for this!