In Hainsight: Chevrie Appointed as Head Coach of Montreal’s PWHL Franchise

On September 15, Kori Cheverie was appointed head coach of the PWHL Montreal by GM Danièle Sauvageau for the PWHL’s inaugural season. Cheverie comes to Montreal with an impressive wealth of coaching experience even though she’s only 36 years old. For the last four years, she’s been part of the women’s National Team and was part of the coaching staff for two World Championships Gold medals, a Silver one, and the big Gold medal win at the 2022 Olympics. She was also part of the coaching staff for the U SPORTS men’s team for five years and coached Team Harvey’s in the PWHPA last season.

The newly appointed coach was beaming with pride and said that it meant a lot to her to be one of the first head coaches of the PWHL. It looks like it was an appointment years in the making as general manager Daniele Sauvageau explained that she’s always thinking ahead and had spoken with Cheverie in the past about the possibility of working together should a professional women’s team land in the city and now it has become a reality. The two women had the opportunity to speak to each other a lot last season while Cheverie coached Team Harvey’s and she was Sauvageau’s first choice.

It wouldn’t be a coaching appointment in Montreal if no one asked Cheverie if she spoke French which happened just a couple minutes in. “I knew that was coming,” she said, before adding that she would be working on it. Sauvageau then jumped in saying that it was important to represent every part of the fan base in Montreal, but that the coach wasn’t the only one representing, it could come from Sauvageau, from the players signed, from anyone who’s part of the team.

The follow-up question came swiftly, as Sauvageau was then asked if there were tangible objectives in place to ensure that the promise would be fulfilled unlike similar promises made by another organization in the city. Sauvageau, wasn’t phased at all by the insistence and replied that the first tangible objective was to enroll in a course and that prior to hiring Cheverie, she had made sure that she was indeed ready and willing to learn French, adding that Cheverie saw the need for herself in a meeting this week when everyone around her started speaking French.

I know that the French-speaking requirement is important for a lot of people, but for me, as a French Canadian, it is by no means essential. The first goal of a hockey team is to win games, not to communicate. As long as the coach appointed is fluent in hockey and excels in it, I have no recrimination and I’m not the only one. The bottom line is, yes, a head coach needs to be able to communicate, but mainly with their players. Reporting a coach’s comment is a responsibility that falls squarely on the media’s shoulders, if you ask me. The lack of ability to speak French should never prevent the appointment of the best man or woman for the job.

If the Montreal Canadiens are rebuilding and afraid of using the “P world” these ladies are definitely not. They are both highly competitive individuals and their objective is to win. Cheverie added that a huge part of fulfilling that objective was to have the best possible people in place on the team. Clearly, they are in it to win it and they’re ready to remind Hilary Knight who mentioned that Boston was “Title Town” last week, that it’s not the case when it comes to hockey.

Now that the coaches have been appointed, the six PWHL teams will be working hard this weekend preparing for Monday afternoon’s draft which will be streamed live on CBC from 1:30 p.m. Marketing-wise, I would have loved the league to announce the six teams’ names and colors before then, but it doesn’t seem like it will be happening, unless of course they use the draft to reveal the long-awaited information? A woman can dream.