Claude Giroux’s Philadelphia homecoming is ‘going to be hard’ after 15 years and lots of memories

When former Gatineau Olympiques coach Benoit Groulx and trainer Serge Haché first met Claude Giroux, they wouldn’t have bet that the little 17-year-old would one day become an NHL player. Groulx said he wouldn’t have bet $1.

The Gatineau coach had heard about Giroux from a scout and decided to take a chance on the undrafted kid via a tryout.

Within weeks of the junior team’s rookie camp, Olympiques fans were chanting Giroux’s name from the stands. They loved him not only because he was French, but because he would go on to score 103 points in his rookie season.

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A year later, Bob Clarke, then the Flyers’ general manager, famously butchered Giroux’s name from the NHL draft stage in Vancouver. The Flyers had used their 2006 first-round pick on the forward whom every OHL team and all but one QMJHL team had once passed over.

It wouldn’t be long before Flyers fans were chanting Giroux’s name as he embarked on a legendary career in Philadelphia. While he had his critics, he put together a stellar 15-year run that will go down in Flyers history. The seven-time All-Star ranks second to Clarke in franchise history in games played (1,000), assists (609), and points (900), and in 2010, improbably led the Flyers to within two wins of snapping a 35-year Stanley Cup drought.

But on March 17, it all came to an abrupt end, when Flyers fans let out their final “Girooooux” chant as they celebrated the captain’s 1,000th and final game as a Flyer. Two days later he was traded to the Florida Panthers for Owen Tippett and two draft picks.

This July, 18 years after Gatineau welcomed a young hockey player with cheers, Giroux returned home, signing a three-year deal with the Ottawa Senators, who are located less than an hour from Gatineau, and Orléans, the town where Giroux spent his high school years.

On Saturday, the Hearst, Ontario native is preparing to hear his name echo once again through the Wells Fargo Center as Flyers fans welcome him back. His career has come full circle since he debuted for the Flyers in 2008 against the Senators, with Giroux now set to play for his hometown team against a city that became his second home.

Sitting at his desk, staring at his star rookie in the chair across from him, Groulx flipped a puck to Giroux.

“I said, ‘The day you’re going to decide this is your puck on the ice, your game will change,’” Groulx, now the coach of the AHL’s Syracuse Crunch, recalled.

Opponents were taking the puck away from the skilled Giroux too easily. While he didn’t have great size, Giroux could prevent that with the right mindset, Groulx told him.

Giroux went out and scored a hat trick that night. And as the years went on, he noticed that the more he followed Groulx’s advice, the better he got. He realized that the critiques were coming from a desire to make him better, not to nag him.

“He definitely made me work harder and just kind of be there for the team,” Giroux said. “He has his ways to do it. And I think that I was very lucky to have him as a coach.”

Meanwhile, Haché watched Giroux’s growth from a different perspective. Haché wears many hats for the Olympiques, including equipment manager and athletic trainer. He also attempts to act as both mom and dad to help the 16-19-year-old boys feel at home.

In Gatineau, Haché saw Giroux transition from a shy 17-year-old to a confident-maybe-cocky 18-year-old to a determined, lead-by-example 19-year-old. By his third year, Giroux was asking Groulx to be hard on him rather than chaffing against the criticism.

Boston Bruins center David Krejčí played with Giroux for a season with the Olympiques, but when he encountered him in the NHL, it was clear how much he’d grown.

“You can see the difference he’s made, how hard he worked,” Krejci said. “And he’s the example because I knew him when he was 17 and then I saw him grow every year in the NHL and he just kept getting better.”

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Four and a half years after Giroux left Gatineau, Groulx received a call. It was his former star, calling for advice.

The Flyers had just offered Giroux, then 25, the captaincy, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready for it. He asked Groulx why he never chose to name him captain in junior and asked if he thought he was up to the challenge. Groulx was quick to assure him he was.

“It’s probably the best phone call I’ve ever received from a person in terms of my career, because it’s a great honor for a coach to have a phone call like that,” Groulx said. “And I think it shows how much he cares about the role.”

At a January 2013 practice, Giroux was officially named captain. It was there that Flyers forward Scott Laughton realized just how much Giroux meant to Philadelphia. The practice was “sold out.”

From Groulx, the reserved Giroux learned it’s OK to lead by example, and he went on hold the captaincy for over nine years, a record across all Philadelphia sports. He left a legacy in Philly — bringing joy to the city, fun to the locker room, and a standard to practice, Flyers defenseman Justin Braun said. But a community seven hours north also reveled in Giroux’s success.

Although the Olympiques no longer play in the same arena, their new arena features Giroux’s face and name throughout. His accomplishments pepper the hallway mural detailing the organization’s history. His retired No. 28 hangs in the rafters. And assorted memorabilia, from a jersey to a bottle of Giroux maple syrup, decorate Haché’s office.

During the 2012 NHL playoffs, Giroux invited Haché and Groulx to a game. That’s when they were hit viscerally with the signs of his success.

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“What I was most proud of ... when we were walking around the arena was all the jerseys,” Haché said. “We saw these [No.] 28 jerseys, going ‘Wow.’ I can just imagine what his parents think, with all these 28 jerseys all over the place.”

Giroux’s Gatineau days seem like yesterday — it’s hard for him to fathom that he spent a lifetime in Philadelphia before returning “home” to Ottawa.

When the Senators first welcomed Giroux into their locker room, they wanted to talk about the Flyers’ 2012 playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Brady [Tkachuk, 24] was saying he was 12 years old at that time,” Giroux said. “And then you have Shane Pinto [21]. He said he was a Sidney Crosby fan. He didn’t really like me that much when I played his Pittsburgh. Just talks like that, it definitely makes me feel a little bit older.”

But that’s part of why Giroux is so important for the Senators.

“He’s perfect for this team,” forward Derick Brassard said. “[We] have so many young guys with talent. They’re just 20 to 23 years old. So he’s the perfect guy to come in, [a] former captain, to try to lead this team to the next level.”

Brassard grew up near Gatineau and has known Giroux since he was that small 17-year-old terrorizing the QMJHL. They were drafted the same year and were regular opponents until Brassard joined the Flyers for the 2022 season. Brassard gained a unique perspective, seeing Giroux as the undrafted, “baby-faced” kid in junior, the “yappy” opponent across from him in NHL faceoff circles, the captain with “the big red beard,” and now as a teammate returning home.

“I think it’s a good thing, too, for Claude to experience something else, like playing here at home, getting to see his family, and living at home,” Brassard said.

Giroux, 34, said he primarily decided on Ottawa because he likes “what they have going on here.”

“And obviously, it doesn’t hurt that my house is not too far from here,” he added.

When the Senators signed Giroux, the players were ecstatic, forward Mathieu Joseph said.

“I mean, you don’t get a player of that talent and that high-end kind of leader around the league like this often,” Joseph said.

Giroux has quickly assimilated as evidenced by the ovation he received in his first game in Ottawa and all the advertisements using his face and name. The team’s also benefited from his presence on the ice — he has cored seven goals and added four assists in 12 games.

The Senators are just 4-8-1, but they’re building a foundation, Brassard said. And Giroux is a big part of that with the influence he’s having on the team’s youngters.

“Great personality, great guy, competitor,” Joseph said. “Being around him makes me a better player just because of his competitiveness.”

After a joyful night celebrating their captain’s 1,000th game in March, the Flyers boarded a plane to Ottawa — without Giroux.

That’s when it hit everyone that this was real. Giroux was really getting traded.

“Just a super bizarre situation in that sense just because it’s not something that happens like that too often,” Flyers winger James van Riemsdyk said. “But it was super close to the trade deadline and it seemed like it was inevitable.”

The roller coaster of emotions was tough for Giroux as he walked out of the Wells Fargo Center as a Flyer one last time. As he prepares to make his first walk into the arena as a visitor, he is braced for another barrage of emotions.

“I think going to Philly is going to be — it’s going to be hard,” Giroux said. “Being able to be in that building for a lot of years and the memories in there. But, saying that, I’ll have to keep my emotions in check and just play a good game and hopefully, give the fans a good show.”

Giroux’s first taste of his post-Flyers reality came when he attended Laughton’s wedding this summer and was seated at a “former Flyers” table. He also experienced a trial run last weekend when the Flyers visited Ottawa. Following dinner with some of his former teammates the night before the game, he exchanged shoves and chirps with them on the ice.

When Giroux returns to Philadelphia, he’ll get to see injured friends like Sean Couturier, Cam Atkinson, and van Riemsdyk. He’ll see the way his former teammates are trying to carry on his legacy. He’ll drive the streets he drove for 15 years and hear Lou Nolan’s voice announcing his name again. It will be as familiar as home because it’s a place where he touched hearts and had his heart touched. It’s a place he said he never thought he’d leave.

But he’s also realized that Ottawa is where he’s meant to be.

“We [the Senators] started on the road and we had five games at home,” Giroux said. “And that’s when I kind of realized that, ‘Whoa, like, I’m going home.’” Although Braun said Giroux expressed during free agency that he was “jealous” Braun was returning to Philly, Giroux is extremely grateful for where he’s at.

“Happy for the kids to be able to see their grandparents and happy for the grandparents to be able to see Gavin and Palmer grow up,” Giroux said. “It’s just memories that we’re going to remember for a long time.”