This could be the greatest.......

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

54 minutes ago, GHT120 said:

HUGE win ... but given that trade was made six years, 8 months and a couple of weeks before Dryden was called up in March 1971, and Dryden almost passed up hockey for law school, I-M-O it was a "wildly lucky" win than a good trade that panned out as expected.

 

I've (obviously) always like 1970 first (10th overall), Ernie Hicke and Backstrom (to keep LA ahead of Oakland/California) for Lafleur ... Kordic for Courtnall, and Mickey Redmond, Bill Collins & Guy Charron for Frank Mahovlich are also favourites.

 

After some research, some other 0ne-sided deals favouring the Habs were:

• Doug Piper & Garry Monahan for Bart Crashley (just for his name) & Pete Mahovlich
• Rivet for Gorges and SJS 2007 1st Round Pick (Max Pacioretty)
• Dick Duff for Dennis Hextall & LA's 1971 2nd Rounder (Larry Robinson)

 Plus getting Philip Danault and a 2nd round pick from Chicago for Dale Wiese and Thomas Fleischman was pretty good. The Suzuki trade turned out very well. 

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

Now this is a great topic! Some good examples already given. From my time, Corson and Gilchrist for Damphousse was a hella trade, as was Richer for Muller - an absolute home run - and of course Courtnall for Kordic. 

 

Off the top of my head, I’d say the trade that got us the #1 overall pick, yielding Guy Lafleur, is probably the greatest trade in Montreal Canadiens history.

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

5 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Off the top of my head, I’d say the trade that got us the #1 overall pick, yielding Guy Lafleur, is probably the greatest trade in Montreal Canadiens history.

 

Hard to argue with that one, getting Lafleur was quite a coup. Some of the trades mentioned were actually good for both teams.  Mahovlich helped the Habs win a couple cups but Redmond scored 50 a couple times for Red Wings, too bad he had a bad back or he would have scored a lot more. Richer had some good years with the Devils and won a cup as did Muller with Montreal. 

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

6 minutes ago, Habs Fan in Edmonton said:

 

Hard to argue with that one, getting Lafleur was quite a coup. Some of the trades mentioned were actually good for both teams.  Mahovlich helped the Habs win a couple cups but Redmond scored 50 a couple times for Red Wings, too bad he had a bad back or he would have scored a lot more. Richer had some good years with the Devils and won a cup as did Muller with Montreal. 

 

Regarding Richer: trading a flaky 2nd-line W for a tough-as-nails, all-situations, #1 C who was our MVP after Roy in 1993 is a pretty good trade if you ask me. That said, Muller did age out relatively quickly. We then traded him with Schneider for Turgeon and Malakhov, of course, and the rapidly-declining Muller then played several seasons as a bottom-6 checker. Interesting that he was involved in two blockbusters by Serge Savard. That second trade was a pretty good one too, notwithstanding Malakhov’s character issues.

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

21 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Regarding Richer: trading a flaky 2nd-line W for a tough-as-nails, all-situations, #1 C who was our MVP after Roy in 1993 is a pretty good trade if you ask me. 

It was a good trade. Captain Kirk was great for the Habs and instrumental in their cup win. I think the change of scenery was good for both players. Richer did score 50 twice, not bad for a 2nd line winger.

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

8 minutes ago, Habs Fan in Edmonton said:

It was a good trade. Captain Kirk was great for the Habs and instrumental in their cup win. I think the change of scenery was good for both players. Richer did score 50 twice, not bad for a 2nd line winger.

 

He scored 50 twice and was an absolute beast of a player - superstar calibre - when he did that in 1989-90. The problem was, he never came anywhere close to that level again. He could never be counted on to bring his 'A game' from night to night, let alone from year to year. That's why I say he was a second-line W. We now know that he had mental health issues, so I'm not blaming him, but the fact is, he was not the player he could/should have been and could not be relied upon to drive an offence. He was a supplementary piece. Muller, on the other hand, was the best non-goalie on the 1993 team - the key to the entire engine.

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

17 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

He scored 50 twice and was an absolute beast of a player - superstar calibre - when he did that in 1989-90. The problem was, he never came anywhere close to that level again. He could never be counted on to bring his 'A game' from night to night, let alone from year to year. That's why I say he was a second-line W. We now know that he had mental health issues, so I'm not blaming him, but the fact is, he was not the player he could/should have been and could not be relied upon to drive an offence. He was a supplementary piece. Muller, on the other hand, was the best non-goalie on the 1993 team - the key to the entire engine.

Richer was a ridiculous talent but inconsistent as you say. Muller is the kind of player you go to war with.

[BCHabnut]

Best trades is hard, because we weren't around to witness them.  

 

The Lafleur maneuver is legendary so has to be number one. 

 

Pollock had multiple other trades that landed picks like Robinson and Gainey as well. 

 

Dryden trade for sure.

 

Richer for Muller

 

Rivet for Gorges and Patches then to Tatar and Suzuki. What a string

 

Time will tell but Fleichman Weiss for Danault Romanov then to Dach could be a gem as well. 

 

This is fun.

 

 

 

 

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

I touched on this earlier, but

 

Kordic - > Courtnall - > Brian Bellows

 

while hardly the greatest trade chain of all time, was a pretty tidy bit of business. I was always impressed that Serge Savard built the entire #1 line of a Cup-winning team (Damphousse-Muller-Bellows) through trades within a fairly short span.

[Peter Puck]

This is not as significant as the other examples but I always liked the trade 

with Toronto:

to Habs: Doug Jarvis    to the Leafs: Greg Hubick

Hubick played the 74-75 season with Toronto and 5 games with the Canucks in 79-80.

 

The leafs drafted (#24 overall) Jarvis June 3, 1975 and traded him June 26th.  Montreal wanted a player who was good on draws.

 

 

[BCHabnut]

4 hours ago, Peter Puck said:

This is not as significant as the other examples but I always liked the trade 

with Toronto:

to Habs: Doug Jarvis    to the Leafs: Greg Hubick

Hubick played the 74-75 season with Toronto and 5 games with the Canucks in 79-80.

 

The leafs drafted (#24 overall) Jarvis June 3, 1975 and traded him June 26th.  Montreal wanted a player who was good on draws.

 

 

And they got one. Dude was unreal in the faceoff dot. Fantastic defensive player. That 70s dynasty was incredible. Screw fan polls. No team touches the 77 habs. Greatest hockey team ever. Gainey and Jarvis with Larry and Serge backed by Dryrden? Good luck scoring a pp against that. 

[Colin]

Was Komi ever really that great? Or was he a product of the perpetually underrated Markov…

[Habs Fan in Edmonton]

12 minutes ago, Colin said:

Was Komi ever really that great? Or was he a product of the perpetually underrated Markov…

He was never great. Markov was the perfect partner for him as they complimented each other well. When Komi left for the money he was lost. Tried to be something he wasn't in Toronto.

[Sir_Boagalott]

31 minutes ago, Colin said:

Was Komi ever really that great? Or was he a product of the perpetually underrated Markov…

 

No, Komi was never great.  The vast majority of Habs fans viewed him through rose coloured glasses.  He was large and slow and couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag.  He made some hits that looked impressive, but they really weren't.  He'd slam himself into the boards more than the guy he'd hit.  Also, he'd take himself completely out of the play doing those hits along the boards causing odd man scenarios.  ex:  a 2 on 2 would become a 2 on 1, etc.  

 

I remember numerous Leaf fans I know were bragging they stole him off the Habs and I'd reply no they didn't, you can have him.  They were all confused by my comments but after his 1st year in T.O. they all agreed with me.  

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

Yup. Komisarek was a beneficiary of playing alongside a criminally underrated, brilliant, top-10 NHL d-man in Markov. He was a bottom pairing guy inflated to look like a shutdown beast by a masterful partner. One of the dumbest ‘expert’ comments of all time was when Macguire declaimed that Markov would be ‘exposed’ without Komisarek. In fact it was exactly the opposite.

 

For me, Komi was symbolic of the Gainey rebuild. Such high hopes, dashed so mercilessly. When Lucic smashed Komi’s face in, I remember thinking: UH OH. It’s only a partial overstatement to say that the rebuild was visibly doomed from that moment forward. 

 

 

[hab29RETIRED]

On 10/7/2024 at 4:16 PM, Colin said:

Was Komi ever really that great? Or was he a product of the perpetually underrated Markov…

He should give 75% of his leaf's salary to Markov and be grateful for being able to keep the 25%.

[hab29RETIRED]

14 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Yup. Komisarek was a beneficiary of playing alongside a criminally underrated, brilliant, top-10 NHL d-man in Markov. He was a bottom pairing guy inflated to look like a shutdown beast by a masterful partner. One of the dumbest ‘expert’ comments of all time was when Macguire declaimed that Markov would be ‘exposed’ without Komisarek. In fact it was exactly the opposite.

 

For me, Komi was symbolic of the Gainey rebuild. Such high hopes, dashed so mercilessly. When Lucic smashed Komi’s face in, I remember thinking: UH OH. It’s only a partial overstatement to say that the rebuild was visibly doomed from that moment forward. 

 

 

McGuire is a loud mouth idiot, who owes his career to for some reason I can't understand, bowman taking a liking to him.

 

i still can't help rolling my eyes at the straight of the reservation comment when we picked Price. Was more intentional - so probably worse than Pang's "Subban has to learn to play the white way".