They will work under the supervision of the Director of Hockey Analytics, Christopher Boucher.
A graduate of Polytechnique Montréal, Philippe Desaulniers has been a professional in the technology space for over 25 years, working on early AI applications in mining, and getting involved in the Montreal technology hubs of aerospace and telecommunications, before moving on to the world of large-scale data analysis.
After several years of developing analytics software and artificial intelligence systems at Averna and Radialpoint, Desaulniers took on the challenge of the startup world, teaming up with the founders of Sportlogiq. There, he combined bleeding edge AI with the pioneering approaches of hockey analytics, led the engineering of the startup's core technology, and created a revolutionary hockey data analytics system that, in the span of a few years, became the de facto standard advanced statistics tool for NHL teams.
McMillan, 32, started playing hockey at eight years old. She sported the colors of the Dalhousie University Tigers for five seasons, where she completed a BSc with combined honours in Mathematics and Statistics.
McMillan also has experience behind the bench, serving as an assistant coach and head coach of the U18 AAA female team in Halifax from 2013 to 2017. A Level 3 on-ice official, she was a lineswoman at two U SPORTS female national championships.
Prior to joining the Canadiens' Hockey Analytics department, the Truro, NS native spent almost six years a statistician and manager of the Data Team at Kinduct Technologies in Halifax.
