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Greatest Roster Of All Time


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I found myself very bored over the last few days with most of the good free agents signed, and waiting for the signings of Koivu, Theodore & Ryder and found myself thinking about the greatest Montreal Canadiens ever. So I thought I'd put together what I thought would be the greatest Montreal Canadiens Roster ever.

I found it difficult to narrow it down and actually could have come up with 2 or even 3 teams, if I included guys who only played 1, 2 or even jsut 3 seasons.

I checked through past posts and nobody has seem to have done this.

Feel free to add comments, hopefully adding a team of your own.

1st Line D Moore - J Beliveau - M Richard

Maybe the only way to make this line better would be to make Guy Lafleur shoot left. Size, Speed, Determination and Leadership.

Jean Beliveau - really no need for explanation but - Quint Essential Big Centerman...theres a reason hes called "Le Gros Bill" . Perhaps top 3 all time center with Gretzky and Lemieux?

Maurice Richard - no need of explanation much like Beliveau. From the blue line in hes the best there was.

Left Wing - maybe a bit of a suprise, but he won 2 Art Ross trophies and beat Howes record at the time of 96 points. Strong 2 way player.

2nd Line Y. Cournoyer - H Morenz - G Lafleur

Morenz - fastest and most talented player of his era

Lafleur - a no brainer

Yvan Cournoyer - only other habs?? who could possibly keep up with Morenz and Lafleur

Wow, the speed and skill would be amazing. Kinda a smallish line, but incredibly talented.

3rd Line S Shutt - P Mahovlich - B Geoffrion

P Mahovlich is a very underated player, with great size and hands. Guy had 150 assists in two years in the 70's. Would feed Geoffrion's cannon, and if the goalie happened to stop it, Shutt would continue making a career of picking up the garbage. 50 & 60 goal scorers on the 3rd line? INCREDIBLE.

4th Line B Gainey - Guy Carbonneau - H. Richard

This is the defensive line.

Guy Carbonneau - 3 Selke Trophies , 2 Stanly Cups 5 time 20 goal scorer...name a better defensive player...never mind, I will...........

Bob Gainey, better than Carbonneau defensively. THis guy makes my team simply because the Russians said he was the best player they have ever seen...now thats saying something. Atleast 5 Stanley Cups, 1 COnn Smyth and 4 Selke's

Henri Richard - 11 Stanley Cups....can play on my team any day.

Defensmen

Doug Harvey - BEst defensman of his era. Was Bobby Orr before Bobby Orr. 6 time Norris Trophy winner.

Larry Robinson - Big Strong and talented. 7 time Stanley cup winner

Serge Savard - 2nd of the big three from the 1970's

Won 6 or soStanley Cups, first defensman to ever win the Conn Smythe, and a great leader

Guy Lapointe - 3rd of the big 3 70's guys. Had a mean streak to go with his Offensive and Defensive abilities. Recored 3 20+ goal seasons.

Sylvio Mantha - one of the best two way defensman of his era and 3 time Stanley CUp winner.

Chris Chelios - might get booed for this one, but this guy is a true warrior, won a Stanley Cup, and Norris Trophy while with the Habs, and is a surefire hall of famer. Was my favorite habs growing up, and have always worn 24 because of him.

My seventh defensman would be Jean Guy Talbot.

Goalies

Wow...this was the hardest choice. I don't think you could have gone wrong with any of Georges Vezina, Georges Hainsworth, Jaques Plante, Lorne Worsley, Ken Dryden, or Patrick Roy.

I went with Patrick Roy because I grew up with him, and Jaques Plante. Ken Dryden was awesome, but gave up hockey for Lawyering, was the Leafs president and now is an MP which makes me sick so I ommited him.

You couldn't go wrong wiht George Vezina, afterall they name the best goalie trophy after him and hey Georges Hainsworth once had 22 shutouts in a season surrendering 43 goals in 44 games..WOW.

But I'll stick with Roy and Plante.

OH and for a goon I'll take John Ferguson

I really wanted to add Elmer Lach but couldn't fit him in at center. Bummer.... Heres some other that I thought about but didn't fit in for whatever reason.

Bert Olmstead, Elmer Lach, Newsy Lalonde, Aurele Joliat, Emile Bouchard, Rod Langway, Mats Naslund, Claude Lemieux, Stephane Richer, Jaques Lemaire, Jaques Lapierre, Toe Blake, Vincent Damphouse, Mark Recchi, Frank Mahovlich, Bobby Smith, Rick Green, Craig Ludwig, Brian Skrudland, Eric Dejardins

Wow, what a complete waste of an hour....I gotta find something better to do with myself

So can you come up with a team?

:lol:

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Originally posted by HabsfaninTO

What ever happened to Sam Pollack?

I found this on the web. It's pretty up to date also. Check the 4th paragraph.

http://www.canoe.ca/Slam030116/col_gross-sun.html

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Now, as to the line-up and the addition of the suggested coaches and General Managers, I have no qualms whatsoever.

I'd like to have seen Bobby Rousseau in there somewhere (the couldn't make it list anyways).

This brings up a neverending peeve I have about my favourite team. I could never understand why they kept trading away core players, especially during the 1990s.

Players like Carbonneau, Desjardins, Roy, Skrudland, Damphousse, Chelios, Kean among others... quality players, some of them who have become top players of their next teams (and future hall-of-famers), if they had stayed with Montreal would have contributed to much more success.

(I'm not even counting LeClair among these because he hadn't yet shown what he could do and, maybe, he wasn't able because he didn't have the kind of linemates that he got when he went to Philadelphia. There are surely other players in that category but that same situation goes with all teams.)

The next one I see possibly being traded or 'let go' is Koivu. Good grief!!! another one who is a core and heart player for this team. I hope it doesn't go that way.

[Edited on 2005/8/16 by shortcat1]

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Well again, I was only making a roster, but if I had to choose a coach and GM, I would choose Scotty Bowman as a coach as hes know for always getting the best out of his players, and of course Sam Pollock as GM, the guy was just brilliant.

As for Rod Langway, I had thought about him, but since he only played parts of 4 seasons in Montreal, I thought Sylvio Mantha, Guy Lapointe and Chris Chelios were not only better players, but played longer for the Habs.

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I'd like to see what Réjean Houle would do to this team...:D:D:D

Give him 1 season and he'll turn this into last year's Pens...

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Don't laugh too hard... there were some absolutely fantastic players for that team over the years. The 60's team was incredibly strong - four Stanley Cups. In the 70's with Sittler, MacDonald, Salming, etc... there was some pretty strong stuff.

What really scuttled the 70's teams, in my opinion, was Harold Ballard. He kept that team off-kilter on a regular basis. If he could have kept his nose out of the day-to-day workings of the team they could have accomplished a way lot more.

The team may be struggling now but there were fine years (even though I despised the team).

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OK.

Chad Kilger - Clarke Wilm - Nathan Perrott

Nik Antropov - Matthew Stajan - Tie Domi

Darcy Tucker - Shayne Corson - Alexander Ponikarovsky

Marek Menelovsky - Luca Cereda - Petr Tenkrat

Karel Pilar - Carlo Colacaiovo

Wade Belak - Drake Berehowsky

Aki Berg - Alexander Khavanov

Corey Hirsch

Mikael Tellqvist

:D:D:D

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Originally posted by Bulis_the_Habbie

OK.

Chad Kilger - Clarke Wilm - Nathan Perrott

Nik Antropov - Matthew Stajan - Tie Domi

Darcy Tucker - Shayne Corson - Alexander Ponikarovsky

Marek Menelovsky - Luca Cereda - Petr Tenkrat

Karel Pilar - Carlo Colacaiovo

Wade Belak - Drake Berehowsky

Aki Berg - Alexander Khavanov

Corey Hirsch

Mikael Tellqvist

:D:D:D

How could you forget about Alexander Steen?

Simply the best Swedish forward since Peter Forsberg. :eyes:

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Originally posted by Higgsfan
Originally posted by Bulis_the_Habbie

OK.

Chad Kilger - Clarke Wilm - Nathan Perrott

Nik Antropov - Matthew Stajan - Tie Domi

Darcy Tucker - Shayne Corson - Alexander Ponikarovsky

Marek Menelovsky - Luca Cereda - Petr Tenkrat

Karel Pilar - Carlo Colacaiovo

Wade Belak - Drake Berehowsky

Aki Berg - Alexander Khavanov

Corey Hirsch

Mikael Tellqvist

:D:D:D

How could you forget about Alexander Steen?

Simply the best Swedish forward since Peter Forsberg. :eyes:

Oops! My bad.

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