Former and retired Habs

Sean Monahan GP=7  G=5.  I'd say he's off to a good start with the Jets.

Yeah, it was unfortunate that Monahan and Toffoli (ex Montreal 163GP / 69G / 65A) were playing too well in their declining years for us to keep them. Hopefully one of the 4 resources obtained for Toffoli will make the Habs in 2 years or so and the draft choice obtained for Monahan a year or so later when it is rumoured our window will appear on the horizon.

In a less sarcastic vein; I hope HUGO turns the Monahan draft pick into something tangible, maybe a prospect or part of a deal for a roster player that could accelerate the rebuild.

Jean-Guy Talbot, one of 12 Montreal Canadiens players to win five consecutive Stanley Cups between 1956 and 1960, has died at the age of 91..........R.I.P.

Monahan missed the last Jets game - it sounds like illness though & hopefully not an injury. Dont love the jets but wish him health no matter what.

It was a horrifically bad trade but there's no way anyone could have fortold how that was going to go.

They were born less than a year apart (Savard feb '61, chelios jan '62) and were both elite.  We had a good, solid defense and apparently they felt they could afford to lose CC with Desjardins, Schneider and other young dmen coming up... and we were absolutely startved for an offensive star. Outisde of Richer we had guys like Corson, Courtnall and Carbonneau who were all terrific 2 way players but nowhere near the scorer Savard was (he was coming off 80points in 60 games IIRC)...

i dont think anyone could have guessed that Savard was all but done & that Chelios would go on to play like 20 more seasons!!  I guess the plus side is that we did win the cup with Savard although, tbh, i think it would have been just as easy to do so with Chelios on the roster instead. 

It does make one pause when we talk about trading guys like Guhle though. Even though you know we need to give up quality to get quality, you dont want a repeat of something like this, thats for sure. 

Chelios tried to take a leak outside a bar and the local cops didn't think that was cool. He was traded the next day. A well thought out tactical move by Hab management. Trading Guhle because he could be our best LH defensive prospect may be a better reason than trading him for public urination but I am not a big fan of either reason.

Still, trading co-captain Chris Chelios & a 2nd round pick (#39-Michael Pomichter) for a washed up Denis Savard was not a well thought out trade.
From the Hockey Writers..........
So, now the question must be asked is how could hockey’s most historic franchise make such an error in a blockbuster trade of this nature. Canadiens GM Serge Savard gave away an appealing asset like Chelios, who was coming into the prime of his career for a player that was being characterized by his coach as a problem on and off the ice. It’s hard to imagine that Chelios was a year younger than Savard because their professional careers were definitely heading in different directions. The argument begins and ends with the team owners, Molson Breweries, who were notorious for making horrible lopsided trades during their (1978-2001) ownership period. Canadien fans are still baffled and speechless over the moves that sent away perennial All-Stars Patrick Roy and Rod Langway from Montreal for virtually nothing of value in return. The Chelios trade to the Blackhawks was a dream come true for the young defenceman, as he was returning to play for his hometown team after enduring an injury-plagued 1989-90 season. He injured his knee in February and didn’t return to the lineup until the start of the playoffs.
In his six seasons with the Canadiens, Chelios appeared in two Stanley Cup Finals (winning in 1985-86) and won the Norris Trophy in 1989. This level of production should have merited him a lengthy stay in Montreal, but that wasn’t going to the case.
Team president Ronald Corey felt Chelios didn’t exhibit the type of demeanor becoming of a Canadien, so he wanted him off of the roster ASAP. Corey had concerns that his reckless off-ice lifestyle had become a detriment to the image of the franchise, and the trade to Chicago was consummated one day after Chelios was arrested for fighting with two Madison, Wisconsin police officers who were trying to detain him for urinating in public. The Blackhawks won the Chelios sweepstakes by offering a disgruntled Savard in return, who had been stifled in Mike Keenan’s aggressive forechecking style of hockey. Nagging injuries cost him 42 games over the previous two seasons in Chicago, but it was his relationship with the team’s coach that sealed his fate. From the Canadiens’ perspective, it seemed this trade was them trying to make good on a horrible mistake they made with the first overall pick in the 1980 NHL Draft. They chose Doug Wickenheiser over local junior star, Denis Savard, who went to the Blackhawks with the third overall pick. He came into the NHL as a flashy goal scorer and became an iconic Chicago sports figure by the end of his stay. Savard scored 100 or more points five times in his career and dazzled fans with his 360 “spin-o-rama” move that often left the opposition hopeless in their own end of the ice. The Canadiens did win a Stanley Cup in Savard’s time with the team, but he was injured and did not appear in the finals against the Los Angeles Kings. It’s fitting that he ended his career where it all began, with the Chicago Blackhawks for one last farewell season.

So I guess we have Serge Savard to thank for the decades of poor organizational depth as he was the driving force behind the hiring of bergebin as well!

Thats re-writing history. Nobody knew he was washed up.  He had just come off seasons of 80 points in 60 games and 82 points in 58 games the 2 years prior. In fact, he had just recorded 9 straight (pro-rated) 100 point seasons.

He was less than 1 year older and had less hard minutes on his body than Chelios just based on how they each played the game.

There was no sign he was slowing down. People thought he'd be a 100 point guy but the quote i remember was "expecting savard to score 100 points in Pat Burns' system would be like running a race horse in the la brea tar pits" 


Im not saying it wasnt a bad trade - it was - but thats all hindsight. At the time, people were excited for it & it was seen as a good one based on our depth at D and lack of scoring power up front.