Hockey globetrotter Francis Paré has played in four countries across seven KHL seasons. A 2014 Gagarin Cup champion with Mike Keenan’s Magnitogorsk, the sought-after import has taken turns in Slovakia, Croatia, Russia and Belarus in the past decade—with brief visits to the Swiss and Finnish leagues in between KHL stints.
A Calder Cup and Spengler Cup champion who spent time in the AHL prior to his European debut, Paré had a disappointing first run with Dinamo, which finished at the bottom of the Western Conference in February. Craig Woodcroft’s Belarusian squad will play for redemption this season, and Paré is confident that the team can find new avenues to success.
We caught up during training camp this week to discuss the French-Canadian’s decorated career and most memorable KHL teammates, not to mention some inline hockey during quarantine.
Gillian Kemmerer (GK): So yesterday was day one of Dinamo Minsk training camp. How are you feeling on day two?
Francis Paré (FP): A little sore, but I'm feeling good. Even though all the gyms back in Quebec were closed for a long time, we found a way. We bought some equipment and I was working out with Mikhail Grigorenko and Mikael Tam from Kunlun Red Star. We were working in the parks with our trainer. That helped a lot, just to keep our minds busy. Even though we were not in gyms and kindof limited, we still got ourselves in decent shape. I'm pretty happy about that.
GK: I've gotten some interesting stories about the types of equipment players bought in quarantine. I've heard CrossFit Assault bikes. Some guys were doing the Marsblades. Did you get on any of those trains, or were you keeping it simple?
FP: I tried to order some Marsblades, but it would've taken like a month to get here, so I just canceled the project. I play inline hockey, and I’ve been playing for almost all my life. We used to do tournaments in the summertime. One time we did a tournament in Detroit, so we drove ten hours to play inline hockey. It was quite an experience to get to be with my buddies and do that.
We got together once a week, all the guys from Europe and all the guys from Quebec City. I would say pretty close to fifteen guys were playing, so it was a really cool experience. For some guys, it was their first time. But no crazy bikes, nothing CrossFit. We bought some dumbbells, and we kept it simple. I think it paid off.
GK: How difficult was your route to Minsk? I’ve seen some crazy itineraries.
FP: Actually, it was the easiest one from my seven years in Europe.
GK: No way.
FP: I flew Montreal to Paris, and Paris to Minsk straight. It was not even thirteen hours in all of the airports. It was quite an experience with the masks, but the airports were so quiet. It was surreal, but it was lot easier to travel—at least for me.
GK: You won the Gagarin Cup in Magnitogorsk under Mike Keenan. Can you share any stories of your time working with “Iron Mike?”
FP: Well, I don't know if I can tell all of them! But to play for him, it was quite an experience. Obviously knowing him from all the years he coached in the NHL, I was really, really scared and really impressed that this level of coach was going to Russia. And his passion for hockey…I was scared and impressed.
One time he came to me and was like, “Frankie, come into my office.” Then he asked every coach to come out, and he's like, "Frankie, you look like you're playing in the Q. Take your tutu off and please play like a man in the KHL that just won the Gagarin Cup." I thought it was really funny, but I got the message and I played a little better after. I got a little bit more involved.
GK: Dinamo Minsk had a difficult year. How are you thinking about the new season?
FP: Last year, things didn't go as planned—but there’s two ways to look at it: do you learn from it, or do you just repeat the same mistakes? I think we're going to learn from it and we're going to grow from it, and that’s been good. When a coach speaks English, it's a lot easier to understand what he wants, but sometimes you want to do the right thing, and it doesn't happen like last year. Hopefully this year, we'll manage to find more wins and get more success, because we have no choice. We can't repeat that kind of season, because that will get you out of a job and get you retired really quick.
The conditioning wasn’t the same last year as it is now. For myself, I didn't work out as much maybe. I feel like this year, I'm a lot more committed to my fitness level and I tried to change a couple of things through my diet. Hopefully it'll show up during the games.
GK: Some people have said that the quarantine forced them to work on things that they would normally put off. It may have added benefits later in the season.
FP: I couldn't get out of my house for a long time, so I was just doing some stuff at home to get my head right, and to spend some energy. And I was doing it with my family. At my cottage we have a squat rack, and I remember doing some squats there. My daughter was nearby drawing, and my wife was not very far doing some core, stuff like that.
When cooking at home, I think it makes it a little easier to stay on a diet. You see exactly what you eat compared to going to the restaurant, where it's easier to get a dessert or a couple of beers. I was blessed to have my family with me actually. I was really happy, and it's an experience that I won't forget.
GK: Are your wife and daughter usually with you in Minsk?
FP: They’re supposed to fly on the 21st of August, and we'll see how everything works out. But I feel like right now in Minsk, nothing really changed. People are a little bit more careful, of course, but I feel like it's business as usual in the city, and it feels nice actually.
My daughter's kindergarten is supposed to start on August 26th, and that's one thing my daughter kept repeating. She wanted to come back and see her friends back in school, so there's a funny video we took her. She got tired of the snow back home and not seeing anybody, so she’s like, "I'm tired of you two. I'm going back home to Minsk to see my friends.”
We love the city and we love everything about Dinamo Minsk. The only thing that was missing last year was wins, and hopefully we'll change that. But that's why we decided to come back as a family, and hopefully this year, everything will be different.
GK: Your daughter must be multilingual already. How do you handle her language education?
FP: At home, my wife speaks to her in French. I try to speak to her mostly—I would say 80%—in English. And when we were in Yekaterinburg for two years, our nanny only spoke Russian and her kindergarten was only in Russian. She's a little shy now, but she understands. She will answer a couple of questions, but I still think I'm the best Russian speaker in the family. She won't get me right now.
GK: Do you chirp in Russian ever?
FP: No, but I will swear in Russian once in a while—even though I know it's not very nice. But I will say a couple of words here and there, especially in the summertime when nobody expects it, and just to make Grigorenko laugh.
GK: Did you ever think that you would have the honor of playing with THE #99 Gretsky in the KHL?
FP: Oh my god, he was a beauty. He's a great guy, really quiet. Works his ass off, on and off the ice. I've never seen a guy that works that hard. He’s wearing number 99, which I thought was a lot of pressure for a young kid like that—and of course, the KHL made a big story out of it. I thought he dealt with all that kind of stuff—all the chirps and all the funny comments—really, really well. And to be honest with you, I have to tip my hat just to go through that kind of season and get to the All Star Game. He went there and I think he did a really good job, gave it his all. That's the kind of guy he is, and the goal he scored in CSKA was an absolute beauty of a goal. I think it was first goal in the KHL.
Hopefully this year, he'll play a little bit more and have a bigger role because last year he didn't play as much. You know exactly what he's going to bring to the table every single day. He's going to work hard, and you have got to give him credit for that.
GK: Who are some of the most interesting or talented players that you've played with in the KHL?
FP: The first two that come to mind are Mozyakin and Zaripov. They are amazing. First of all, just as humans—they’re really nice people. They don't speak much, but once they say something, it's a meaningful and it's really heavy in the room.
I would say for imports, Nigel Dawes is one of the all-time greats. I got to spend a lot of time with him, and the way he approached the game—even at his age—is quite something. Sometimes you arrive early in the morning, and you think you’ll be the first guy in the room. But no—Dawzy’s in the gym and he's covered in sweat. He's been on the bike for like 30, 40 minutes. He's taking care of that body, and no wonder he gets so much success in the league.
When I come back home, I try to explain to my buddies back in Montreal and Quebec City, those are the three guys that I see as the highest in the league. That year when we won the Gagarin Cup, Mozyakin was untouchable. I have never seen a player dominate a hockey game like that, and we played some good teams in the playoffs. He was just on a different planet than anybody else, and still to this day—what five, six years later?—he's still the most impressive player I've seen during the playoffs.
GK: What are some of your most-cherished hockey memories?
FP: I would say, for me, the most fun I've had playing hockey was with my dad and my family in the backyard. My dad and my grandfather would make a really nice hockey rink behind the house. Not very big, but that would be the most fun I've had. That's where I fell in love with the game, and that's probably what keeps me going to the rink every single day—that fire burning inside of me just to have fun like a little kid.
GK: Who did you idolize or root for growing up?
FP: I would say the Montreal Canadiens. Being a French Canadian kid, you almost had no choice. My dad was more of a Boston Bruins fan, but I hated them. They were not my style. Really young, I started rooting for the Detroit Red Wings also. I would say Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic were my two favorite players. Those would be the two players that I was trying to imitate on the ice.
GK: Do you have any superstitions or rituals that you adhere to before games?
FP: My wife makes a French dish—it’s called bouilli. The night before games, she'll make her special bouilli, so that would be one of the biggest superstitions that I have.
GK: Lastly, what do you watch on your longer road trips?
FP: When I go on the road, I try to watch some French Canadian TV shows. I usually download a few and support the locals. I'll try to read a book once in a while, but the books usually put me right to sleep.
GK: Maybe you need a more interesting book.
FP: Yeah, that’s probably it. Maybe you can make some suggestions for me. But at my age, I need those naps sometimes!
