Serge we hardly knew ye

[Roo-AH! Roo-AH!]

What with all the recent discsussion of Houle and our trading history, I thought it might be time for a thread on assessing Serge Savard's performance as GM.

I say he was a very good GM. Not one of the 'greats' like Selke or Pollock, obviously, but definitely good enough to keep the Habs in the very upper echelon of the NHL for almost every year of his reign (1983-95). The Habs in his era resembled the New Jersey Devils of the last decade, both stylistically and in terms of their consistency and success.

THE RECORD:

-Three Finals appearances (1986, 1989, 1993); two Cups in 12 years (1986 and 1993)

-three 100+ -point seasons, several others in the 90s; no season worse than 87 points, except the strike-shortened 1995. From 1984-85 to 1993-94 the Habs were always considered contenders by the rest of the league.

This wasn't appreciated by Habs fans at the time, of course, because they'd been trained to expect dynasties.

MANAGERIAL MOVES:

A. COACHING

He made good coaching choices, bringing up Pat Burns and then hiring Jacques Demers (although he must also take responsibility for Jean Perron).

B. TRADES

He gets beat up a lot for bad trades, and at least three were genuine boners: Chelios for Savard (Corey pressured him into that one but still); Recchi for LeClair and Desjardins (at least we got a fine player back, but ouch); and Claude Lemieux for Sylvain Turgeon (dat hoits). But let's not forget the flip-side:

-trading John Kordic for Russ Courtnall

-then dealing a whining Courtnall for Brian Bellows, a power forward of huge value in the 93 Cup run

-trading a melting-down Shane Corson for Vinny Damphousse, who was also crucial in the 93 Cup run and later

-my personal favourite, fleecing the Devils by moving that idiot Stephane Richer for the mighty Kirk Muller (!!), who immediately became our best player after Roy

-and then, after Muller had played a huge role in winning the Cup and lost a step to become a third-liner, trading Muller for Pierre Turgeon (!!!). Now THAT's asset management. Of course, Schneider and Malakhov were also implicated, but the Habs are still hands-down winners in that one.

C. DRAFTING

He's often abused for drafting errors, which is fair, but let's not forget that he drafted such players as Patrick Roy, Petr Svoboda, Sylvain Levevbre, Andrew Cassels, Corson, Richer, LeClair, Desjardins, Schneider, Craig Conroy, Saku Koivu, Jose Theodore, Valeri Bure, Darcy Tucker, etc..

D. PASSING THE TORCH

The team he bequeathed to Reggie Houle featured:

classy veterans such as Patrick Roy, Mark Recchi, Vinnie Damphousse, Pierre Turgeon, Mike Keane, and Benoit Brunet,

good depth players like Stevenson, Odelein and Brisebois,

and nice up and comers like Saku Koivu, Craig Conroy, Donald Brashear, Darcy Tucker, and Valeri Bure.

It was weak on D, however. Desjardins and Schneider had both been dealt to try to compensate for a 1st line (Bellows-Muller-Damphousse) that basically got old overnight.

Within two years, Houle had strip-mined this team down to a 77-point regular season and several seasons of 1st round exits, missed playoffs, and general bottom feeding.

BOTTOM LINE:

Several prominent mistakes, but on the whole, a consistent record of success. Serge Savard was a good GM and frankly, if Gainey brings similar results in the next decade (two Cups, year after year of contending) I doubt that Habs fans will be complaining.

:ghg:

[Edited on 2005/9/16 by Roo-AH! Roo-AH!]

[sakiqc]

Nice recap. Good job

[beckham]

"PASSING THE TORCH"...

The torch was OUT and Molsons ripped it out of Serge's fat greedy hands by force.

[GuyRock70]

Originally posted by beckham

"PASSING THE TORCH"...

The torch was OUT and Molsons ripped it out of Serge's fat greedy hands by force.

Only a person who is completely ignorant of the facts could make disrespectful comments about Serge Savard. This Beckham dude sounds very young and immature. For your information Beckham, Serge Savard is a former captain of the Montreal Canadiens. Big #18 was an integral member of numerous Cup winning teams. He was one of the best d-men of his era. All real habs fans appreciate his enormous contribution to the Montreal Canadiens Hockey Club. As far as his record as GM., it is more than respectable, as previous detailed posts illustrate. When you disrespect Big#18, you disrespect all fans of Le Club de Hockey Canadien.