Pierre Dorion is a passionate and emotional guy, yet he can count the number of times he has cried on one hand.

Naturally, he was a mess when his father suddenly passed away 22 years ago. All of us in the hockey world knew Pierre Dorion Sr., as a great man. He was also his son’s hero.

Dorion also wept when he was fired by the Montreal Canadiens, with whom he spent 11 years and became chief scout, a position his dad held with Toronto Maple Leafs.

You get the connection. Many of us want to be just like our father. When that dream is achieved, then taken away, of course it’s disturbing.

And now, this.

During Sunday’s news conference announcing that he was the Senators new GM, Dorion had to compose himself a couple of times. His voice quivered. He paused. He swallowed. He started again, then quivered again.

Why was he choked up on what should have been be such a personally gratifying day? After he had just signed up for one of the 30 best jobs in all of hockey?

Because it all made him think about the man he was sitting beside, and his old man.

Understandable.

“Bryan has been the biggest influence in my professional and private life,” said Dorion, referring to Bryan Murray. “I’m so thankful and extremely humbled to be following in Bryan’s footsteps … to learn from someone who will and should be in the Hall of Fame. Bryan has been a tremendous mentor.

“Having Bryan Murray in my life has filled a personal need that nobody outside of my dad could. To me, Bryan is the second greatest man I’ve ever known.

“In the past nine years working together, whether it was many lunches, formal or informal, and the many conversations, it was always about doing the right thing. Working nine years with Bryan has been one of the greatest things in my life, especially in the last seven years when I’ve worked with him on an every-day basis.”

As the new boss, Dorion’s first order of business will be to decide on a coach. If he’s available, the obvious choice would be Claude Julien.

When he was director of hockey operations for the Ottawa Jr. Senators in the CJHL 23 years ago, Dorion was responsible for making all the personnel moves.

One of them was to give Julien his first coaching job.

Julien served as co-coach with Bruce Bullard, then went on to become the bench boss of the Hull Olympiques, where he won the Memorial Cup in 1997. Since then he has spent 13 seasons in the NHL and won a Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins.

Now, with the B’s having missed the playoffs the past two season, there’s speculation Julien is on his way out. But then we hear rumblings he will be retained, which would ruin the potential headline: From Jr. Senators to NHL Senators, Dorion and Julien reunited.

It also would leave the Senators in a bit of a pickle. Do they dare bring Dave Cameron back? That’s a longshot. A new GM wants to hire his own coach, and besides, the owner made it clear he’s not too happy with the job done by Cameron.

So then what?

From the get-go, Dorion has to excel at a task that proved to be a weakness for his mentor. After he stood behind the plank himself as the Senators reached the 2007 Stanley Cup final, Murray took over as GM and, in five tries, was unable to hire the right man for coach.

Why was it so difficult to find his own successor?

“I’ve thought about this an awful lot,” said Murray.

“First of all, being an old coach, I’m probably more critical than some GM’s were. I see things system-wise that bothered me. What we tried to do here was give opportunity to guys who were in the organization — whether it be a coach in Binghamton or an assistant here. They seemed to fit when we were looking or interviewing. They seemed to be a guy that could step up and fill the role.

“Coaching in the NHL is really, really, really difficult — to get your players, with the contracts that they have today, to get them to play right way, have the systems every day, to make sure they’re all on your side or thinking your way, so it’s different. When you’re an assistant or minor league coach, you may have had great success but ... to get up here and deal with the everyday issues seemed to be bigger than maybe I thought they were even at the beginning.

“I don’t have any other answer than that. I’ve been disappointed in a couple of hires I’ve had simply because at the time they sure looked like candidates with real promise. Maybe we were too quick on them.

“Maybe making the playoffs is the end-all and be-all here.”

It is, as it should be. For without making the playoffs, you’re not going to win the Stanley Cup.

Dorion has never had the title, but he does have a lot of experience in management and evaluating talent. He’s a good choice to succeed Murray. Now he’s just got to make a good choice for his coach.