The former co-owner and president of the Nordiques is doing well, so well that he feels in better shape at 77 than in his fifties, which has not stopped him from reducing the pace in recent years.
“You can’t work 100 hours all your life, at some point it catches up with you,” he said during an exclusive interview with Soleil as part of the 30th anniversary of the sale of the Blues. My wife makes me make annual resolutions that aren’t always kept, but I want to continue to slow down. I don’t even work evenings or weekends anymore!”
Mikaël Lalancette meets Marcel Aubut as part of the 30th anniversary of the sale of the Nordiques. (Frédéric Matte, The Sun)
Family is everything
The old kid de la Grande Allée experiences the same pleasures of negotiating as a lawyer as in the good old days when he reigned as king and master over professional hockey in Quebec.
The first francophone in history to lead the Canadian Olympic Committee (COC), from 2010 to 2015, says he leads a peaceful life, surrounded by his wife, Francine, his daughters and his five grandchildren. Three are boys, sports lovers like their grandfather.
“We took back a little power!” he jokes when talking about the next generation of men at the Aubut family.
In the shadows since 2015
Withdrawn from the public sphere since his controversial departure from the COC, which he left after being targeted by a sexual harassment complaint in 2015, Marcel Aubut leads a life very different from his hectic reign as president of the Nordiques.
Marcel Aubut left the Canadian Olympic Committee in 2015. (Canadian Press Archives)
He had only granted two “interviews” in nearly nine years before agreeing to meet The Sun to talk about the end of the Nordiques, a brief reaction to the death of Guy Lafleur and a participation in the TV series of his friend, Réjean Tremblay, on the Canadiens-Nordiques rivalry.
He doesn’t complain about it. “I wanted to put the ax in there to avoid people calling me all the time and I don’t miss it at all,” he swears. It’s like eating chocolate when you like it. I’ve eaten so much of it that I don’t miss it at all.”
“It wears it all out.”
— Marcel Aubut on his life spent in the eye of the media
The return from Quebec?
The days when he flew three or four times a week to push his wildest projects into the upper echelons of the NHL are over. Marcel Aubut is content to follow hockey on the small screen, as if he had just “discovered television”.
One thing, however, has not changed: the strong opinions of the father of overtime and the use of video replay in the National Hockey League.
Not a week goes by without someone asking him if we will see the capital again in the ranks of the National League one day, a billion dollar question. “What I’m saying is that I’m getting older, and that it won’t come from me,” smiles Aubut. I never answer no. What would that look like? All I’m adding is that it should never have gone away…”
The Desmarais better placed than Quebecor?
Quebec is still the best hockey city in Canada according to him, but two things are blocking the return of the Blues to the big NHL family. The cost of a franchise and the balance of power, in the east and in the west. Marcel Aubut does not see a player from Quebec capable of achieving the feat solo at the moment.
-André Desmarais and Paul Desmarais jr. (André Pichette/Archives La Presse)
His expression changes when we mention the Desmarais family, even though the manager of the Videotron Center, Quebecor, is a long-time business rival of the Power Corporation of Canada. “Bettman likes them a lot,” he simply says about the members of the Desmarais family. It would be a big plus, definitely.”
Molson’s parole
Does he believe the president and CEO of the Montreal Canadiens, Geoff Molson, when he says he is in favor of the return of the Nordiques? “I’m not going to answer that,” he says.
The big boss of the Montreal Canadiens, Geoff Molson, last week in Quebec. (Frédéric Matte/Archives Le Soleil)
When we dare to add that Gary Bettman has no chemistry with Canada, Marcel Aubut jumps in his seat to come to his friend’s defense. “That’s not true. Very wrong. Especially if Canada is to become the 51st state!” he jokes on the day President Donald Trump was sworn in.
Every Christmas or on June 2, the birthday of the most powerful man in the NHL, Aubut writes or calls him to check on him. “We always had chemistry together and it served us both well,” he continues. It hurt him a lot that I left…”
The new kid of the Grande Allée
Deprived of the international visibility provided by its professional sports team, has Quebec become the “big Trois-Rivières” that Mayor Jean-Paul L’Allier spoke of before his election in November 1989?
The former Liberal minister affirmed at the time that this is what would happen if Quebec found itself one day deprived of its Château Frontenac, Parliament, the Nordiques and its museums.
The septuagenarian firmly believes that the “city is no longer the same” since the mourning of 1995. He struggles to identify his successor as the kid of the Grande Allée in 2025.
“It’s been more stagnant for some time,” laments Aubut, speaking of Quebec’s economy. I don’t find that there are many individual leaders. Every month, I ask myself who are the three or four stars of the city. I don’t know what to answer, but the question is relevant.”
The excitement is over
The city, Quebec and Canada have “nasty challenges”, particularly with the arrival of Donald Trump at the White House. “It’s a lot of uncertainty, there are a lot of things I don’t like,” said Marcel Aubut with a serious air. Let’s just say that these are not moments of exaltation.”
Controversial, does the great builder that he was continue to dream even if he has completely disappeared from the media limelight?
“At my age, it’s just about living old and healthy. And to see where my family members will go. I feel lucky to have gone there, with everything I needed to have fun.”
Without the Nordics, far from the microphones and the cameras.
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