By Will MacLaren

Marty Johnston’s time in the QMJHL ended on a note that was in some ways as unexpected as it was bitter. As captain of the Hull (now Gatineau) Olympiques, he led his club from a 55-point regular season to Game 7 of that year’s QMJHL Final. Though the Olympiques – who remain the team with the lowest win percentage in league history to reach the championship round – fell to the Acadie-Bathurst Titan, it was something his Head Coach said to him afterwards that would add a dash of prophecy to a moment already swimming with mixed emotions.

“Claude Julien took me into his office after that game and told me I’d make a good coach someday,” Johnston recalls. “It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping to hear since I wanted to play pro but he was the first person to tell me that.”

These days, Julien and Johnston now see each other from opposing benches in the NHL, just as the former had hinted at all those years ago. Johnston is currently in his fourth season as an Assistant Coach of the Winnipeg Jets, the most recent stop in a successful career behind the bench which spans 19 seasons and also includes lengthy stints with the Carleton Ravens (USPORTS) and AHL Manitoba Moose. It’s also the latest tale in one of the more interesting individual stories from within the game. When Johnston got to Hull in the fall of 1996, all bets were off and yet all cards were on the table.

“I was pretty naïve,” he says of his introduction to major junior as a tough, undersized winger fresh out of the Ontario Jr. A ranks. “I had no real expectations. I just went to camp and wanted to give my best shot.”

Not only did Johnston play a valuable depth role on an Olympiques squad that captured the Memorial Cup on home ice the following Spring, he started to pick up lessons that he would put to use years later from Julien, then in his first year as Head Coach at Hull, and Guy Lalonde, Johnston’s Head Coach with the Gloucester Rangers and a first-year Assistant to Julien, who was instrumental in getting his young charge an invite to the O’s training camp that year.

“I remember during the Memorial Cup, we lost 7-6 in the round robin to Lethbridge after leading 6-1,” Johnston reflects. “It was shocking to our group. Claude came in the room afterwards and was completely calm. He just told us to focus on the next game. There was no yelling or screaming. For me, it was a very clear coaching moment.”

After a successful junior career came three years at Dalhousie University, where Johnston met his future wife, earned a degree in Political Science and captained the hockey Tigers for two campaigns. After a couple of seasons in the AHL and ECHL, plus a lockout campaign playing in Scotland, it was time to make a decision.

“During my last year of pro, I knew the dream of reaching the NHL was probably not happening but I wanted to stay in the game,” Johnston explains. “That conversation with Claude after Game 7 probably influenced my decision to get into coaching more than anything else.”

That influence has led to his current Assistant Coaching position in which having an influence on his players has allowed Johnson, an offensive minded player in his day, to pass it forward to the next generation of talent.

“It gives me an opportunity to work one-on-one with our players,” Johnston says when asked about the most rewarded aspects of his work. “We can spend time working on individual skills and work through the ups and downs as they occur. The biggest thing for me is watching the progression of the players.”

And still, those days in the ‘Q’, now nearing three decades in the rear-view mirror, remain a touchstone for Johnston. Crediting Julien, Lalonde and QMJHL Hall of Famer and former Olympiques Executive Charles Henry for his own successes, Johnston continues to build upon that well-constructed foundation.

“It was a tale of two teams for me in Hull,” he points out. “I arrived on a team that was built to win the Memorial Cup and did. My last year, we were near the bottom of the standings and ended up going to Game 7 of the league final. It showed me at a young age that there are different ways to succeed. Mine was a different path than most but I’ve always been grateful for the opportunities.”