No token hires: Putting women in top jobs in men's sports is about winning

When Cammi Granato was young, she had a fantasy: she and her hockey-mad brothers would win the lottery and buy a hockey team and manage it together. 

This plan, they figured, was the only way Granato, as a girl, would be able to contribute.

Tony and Don Granato went on to have careers in the NHL, and now, their sister is one of two women recently hired as assistant general managers of the Vancouver Canucks.

"I didn't think I was going to see that come so quickly — in my lifetime," said Granato, now 51. 

But there was no lottery win necessary to get here — Cammi Granato has simply had an impressive and diverse hockey career, built in spite of the barriers and exhaustion that came with being the first woman in almost every job she took. 

Granato, who may be most recognizable to Canadians as the former captain of Team USA, where she played for 15 years, comes to Vancouver after three years scouting for the Seattle Kraken. The other new assistant general manager, Emilie Castonguay, was the first female certified agent in the league, negotiating big deals with top players.

Jim Rutherford, president of hockey operations for the Canucks, says these are not token hires. It's about winning — something the team, which missed this year's playoffs, needs to do. 

"My goal was to bring different people, who took different roads in the hockey world — to bring different ideas, different voices," said Rutherford.

Women's voices are increasingly being heard at the top levels of professional sport. The B.C. Lions, for example, were the first CFL team to hire a female coach, in defensive assistant Tanya Walter. The NFL had a dozen female coaching staff in the 2021/22 season. 

And a woman, Kim Ng, is the general manager of baseball's Florida