When you're the Montreal Canadiens' general manager, you must be feeling like you living under a microscope. No matter how small a move you make, there will be 312000 arm chair GMs to not only analyse them but criticize them from every angle for years and years to come. As Marc Bergevin prepares for the trade deadline, let us take a look as some of the very worst trades in the Habs' history.
Mike Ribeiro to the Stars for Janne Ninimaa In September 2006, Bob Gainey pulled the trigger and sent Ribeiro and a sixth round pick in 2008 to Dallas for Janne Ninimaa and a 5th round pick in 2007. At the time, the Habs needed some help on defence, Francis Bouillon had just suffered a knee injury and would be out until the end of November, Sheldon Souray had a shoulder injury and Jean-Philippe Côté was also sidelined. Gainey said that those injury highlighted the fact that the Habs lacked depth and experience on the blue line and that the issue had to be addressed so in came Ninimaa, having already played 11 season in the NHL and a few in Europe as well. He would end up playing for the Habs for 41 games "racking up" 3 assists, 36 penalty minutes and a -13. The 5th round pick became Andrew Conboy (who never played a single game in the NHL, not that surprising for a 5th round pick) and the pick Dallas received Matthew Tassone didn't fare any better. Ribeiro however would go one to play 6 seasons for Dallas with points total varying from 53 to 83 a season before the Stars sent him over to Washington for Cody Eakins. Of course, there were rumours about Ribeiro's personal life and feud with some teammates but Gainey really had to move him, he surely should have got something better...in his last 2 seasons in Montreal, he had produced 65 and 51 points and he was a centre...but hey, the Habs always had an embarrassment of riches at centre right?
Chris Chelios to the Hawks for Denis Savard In June 1990, Serge Savard wanted to add some offence to his team and to do so, he chose to sacrifice Chris Chelios and a 2nd round pick in 1991 (who would become Michael Pomichter, who you say? Exactly, he never made the big league) to do so. Coming back was Denis Savard a seasoned vet who had played for the Hawks for 10 years, recording multiple seasons of 100+ points after they had selected him 3rd overall at the 1980 draft, you know the draft where the Habs had the very first pick and settled for Doug Wickenheiser. Perhaps, the general manager felt he was making up for a mistake made 10 years earlier when Irving Grundman was at the helm? It might had been too late by then though, in his last season in Chicago, Savard had managed an 80 points season, a total he would never reach again. He stayed in Montreal for 3 seasons of 59,70 and 50 points before landing in Tampa Bay. In his last season with the Habs, he was often an healthy scratch quite a few times suiting up for only 41 games and playing only 14 of the 20 games of the 1993 cup run. As for Chelios, he had played 7 season in Montreal but was only a year younger than Savard but their longevity would not be the same. "Chelly" last appeared in an NHL game in 2009-2010 while Savard retired in 96-97 and he stayed at elite level for quite a while (the offense eventually dried up but he remained in top physical shape and steady defensively). At the end of his career, Chelios had 3 Norris trophy (1 with the Habs), multiple all star team selections and he got to raise the cup 3 times (1 in Montreal and 2 with the Red Wings). It's safe to say that if Serge Savard could have taken that trade back, he would have.
Patrick Roy and Mike Keane to Colorado for Jocelyn Thibault, Andrei Kovalenko and Martin Rucinsky I think December 6, 1995 is etched in the memory of several Habs fans as the start of the dark ages for the once glorious franchise. Some will argue that it started when Réjean Houle was given the role of general manager without having any relevant experience whatsoever to do it (that was even worst than the coyotes hiring John Chayka from my point of view, there's more than just someone's age to consider when hiring). Having played the game at the highest level does not make you a great executive or a great coach (remember the Great One in Phoenix?) and whatever Corey was thinking when he pulled the trigger and then allowed "Peanut" to hire Mario Tremblay as head coach it was oh so very wrong. For some reason, Mario Tremblay wanted to be a hard ass respected by his player, perhaps it was because he played 5 years under Scotty Bowman who was anything but a players' coach, but that meant there was no place for Tremblay and Roy on the same team. On a sad Saturday night in Montreal, the Red Wings destroyed the Canadiens and the rookie coach decided to "break" his goalie's attitude by leaving him in net for 9 goals. Long enough for the crowd to actually clap one of the goalie's routine save prompting him to throw his arms up in the air as a salute... At that moment, something broke alright and it wasn't Roy's attitude it was his relationship with the Club de Hockey Canadiens. 3 short days later, he was on his way to Colorado (where he would win 2 more Stanley Cups) along with the Habs captain at the time Mike Keane (he wasn't an offensive mastermind but he was heck of a leader and his leadership would be dearly missed by the Tricolore). The 3 players who came back would fail to make history with the Bleu, Blanc, Rouge, Thibault would play for the Habs for part of 4 seasons and he never had more than 23 wins in a season with Montreal (he had 26 in total that season but 3 were with the Avs), Rucinsky for 7 seasons, gathering over 50 points 3 times in that span and as for Kovalenko well, he stuck around for 51 games before being sent to Edmonton in return for Scott Thornton.... Let that sink in for a moment. The Habs traded one of the best goaltenders in the history of hockey for that?
Lemieux was a key player in the Avs-Wings rivalry:
Whatever Marc Bergevin does, or doesn't do before the deadline, I wish him all the luck in the world because being a GM is no easy job. We've heard him say for years that making trades is hard but last bring, when Geoff Molson said that the state of the team was unacceptable, it clearly was a message to his GM to pull his finger out and that resulted in his two biggest deals since the Subban-Weber one and one has to admit that he's done pretty darn well with these!