Sylvain St-Laurent hired in Ottawa: French-language media coverage takes a hit

The Ottawa Senators made some personnel moves today.

They hired Ian Mendes as VP Communications, and appointed Sylvain St-Laurent as Director of Communications.

Taking a step back, we realize that the hiring of Sylvain St-Laurent is very similar to that of Chantal Machabée in Montreal.

The links are easy to make, since Sylvain St-Laurent was previously – like Chantale Machabée – a journalist in the media world.

He covered the Senators for several years for Journal Le Droit, and was communications manager for the Ottawa team in the FHL during the last campaign.

That said, the hiring of Sylvain St-Laurent may seem “flat” to French-speaking Senators fans because he was pretty much one of the “only” sources covering the Sens in French in Ottawa.

What I’m trying to say here is that this is great news for Sylvain St-Laurent… but it also means that there will be less coverage of the Senators, especially in French .

Ian Mendes went from being persona non grata with the Senators to VP of Communications. Amazing.
Sylvain St-Laurent being added will hopefully improve the outreach with the Francophone demographic. https://t.co/uoBx3opLMu

– Andrew Zadarnowski (@AZadarski) July 31, 2024

The same can be said for Ian Mendes, who was also a journalist before being hired by the Sens.

He was assigned to cover the team for The Athletic platform. He covered the club’s activities in English, and it will be interesting to see if The Athletic tries to find a replacement for him.

On the other hand, it’s worth noting that the hiring of Chantal Machabée in Montreal didn’t have the same impact, because there was already a lot of media covering the Habs’ activities.

The market is bigger in Montreal because there’s more interest, and you don’t have to look any further than that to explain the situation.

But hey. The Sens needed to find someone to connect with their French-speaking fan base, and Sylvain St-Laurent is able to fill that role because of his experience and native language.

A good for a bad, then.

Overtime

– Whew…

Yesterday’s game at Stade Saputo was one of the most interesting in a long time. I had a lot of fun with friends. If it were always like that, would be nice!

But on TV, it didn’t score at all. Only 52,000 viewers (average per minute) on RDS…#CFMTL

– Maxime Truman (@MaximeTruman) July 31, 2024

– Ah oui?

Well, I was off by one. It will be Carolina and not St. Louis without an ECHL affiliate. They have an agreement to send players to Bloomington.

Columbus will probably just send players to Kalamazoo.

That leaves Ottawa without an ECHL destination. Trois-Rivières makes sense. https://t.co/MMyoOxdHmF

– Andrew Zadarnowski (@AZadarski) July 31, 2024

– Excellent.

First-round pick: since 2019, the Habs haven’t been wrong https://t.co/ApenErHdA5

– TVA Sports (@TVASports) July 31, 2024

– Time flies…

THIS DATE IN 2000: Martin St. Louis signs with the @TBLightning. He would go on to play 972 games through 13 seasons, hoist the #StanleyCup and finish his tenure at the top of multiple franchise lists. #NHLStats pic.twitter.com/VEgHqdarmz

– NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) July 31, 2024

– Out of the ordinary.