October 13 2007

This week in the Gazette our friend Red Fisher is listing the greatest trades the Canadiens have made over the years which got me to thinking about the worst. And without a doubt the worst was Patrick Roy to the Colorado Avalance. Next to the Flyers trading for Eric Lindros it was probably the worst trade in NHL history. The Canadiens at the time had the perfect management storm; a president Ron Corey; a general manager - Rejean Houle and a coach- Mario Tremblay none of whom had a clue. Houle had been general manager only 5 weeks at the time.

So it became Patrick along with team captain Mike Keane to the Avalanche for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Rucinsky and Andre Kovalenko. Looking down from the Forum Pressbox the next home game my first thought was ---for the first time in my memory there was not one potential Hall-of-Famer on the Canadiens. That was the major damage. The heart was taken right out of the organization.

Twelve years, six coaches and two general managers later the team is still trying to regain it's stature. They finally seem to be on the right track but, for all of those great trades over the years, the Canadiens were stung badly one time and it turned out to be a franchise breaker.