Tremblay didn't run Roy out of town. That was Ron Corey's call and he'd have made the trade no matter who the coach was. In any conflict between player and coach, Habs management always sides with the coach and gets rid of the player. The only time it didn't happen that way was when Henri Richard called out Al MacNeil during the 71 finals. After the playoffs Sam Pollock sent his Cup-winning coach to the minors and hired Scotty Bowman. Other than that, the coach always wins out.
When Lafleur chafed at being constrained by Lemaire's stifling defensive system, management pushed him into premature retirement. Roy was a guy who was often "difficult" to deal with and management had toyed with the idea of trading him a few times before they pulled the trigger. I wouldn't be shocked if it comesout one day that Tremblay was given either implicit or explicit instructions from Corey to put an end to the country club, "play as much or as little as you want" approach with Roy that Demers had used.
And we all know what happened to Subban when he ran afoul of his coach.
The Habs are, above all else, a corporate entity with a clear chain of command - well, clear at least to the extent that the players are at the bottom of the organizational chart, that is. They don't get to say what goes and what doesn't and sometimes, when you're dealing with a player who happens to have an ego, like Lafleur or Roy or Subban, it doesn't end well. But the Habs have done this enough times to enough Hall of Fame players to demonstrate that they care about being in control more than they care about having talented players. They will sacrifice that talent in order to assert their authority every time. That model worked just fine back in the old days when the players had no power. But today all that approach gets you is pennies on the dollar when you decide to trade your talented but "individualistic" player for non-hockey reasons.
