"Habs are a pain in the ass to play against", Mark Recchi.

[hvac412]

Leclair was drafted in 87 and had done very little by the time he was traded.

Recchi had al lost 40 more points than anyone else on the flyers when he put up his 123 point season. In his last full season with the flyers he put up 19 more points than anyone else. Granted, Lindros missed almoat 20 games.

The trade looked good for Montreal, but then Leclair took off and Recchi was still good for the habs, but didn't have a talent to play with like Lindros,so Montreal got wrecked in a deal.

Leclair was a beast in the playoffs and should not have been part of the deal ,Savard screwwed up big time.

 

[Habs Halifax]

People always talk about Roy trade and it's impact... and they are obviously right. But Leclair/Desjardins trade for Recchi was just a big of a disaster as Roy. At least Roy played in a different conference. Leclair and Co terrorized Habs for years on a regular basis.

Yeah it was not a good trade but at least Recchi produced with the Habs. Who produced with the Habs from the Roy trade?

 

[Habs Halifax]

Travis Yost did an excellent article on the series.

Pittsburgh was a better 5 on 5 team than us, with the talent to match that. So they mitigate our strength while possessing a potent power play (and we have a weak penalty kill).

Pens were very good this year 5/5 as well yes. They are also a good skating team like us but with more skill. Our only chance is it takes them longer to get going vs the Habs.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Which teams aren't?

Leafs

 

[Habs Halifax]

Recchi is not wrong but I rather be a dangerous team to play against then a pain in the ass.

 

[Gaylord Q Tinkledink]

Leclair was a beast in the playoffs and should not have been part of the deal ,Savard screwwed up big time.

He was a beast for one series.

During his tenure with M9ntreal he had 40 playoff games and 15 points. 6 goals and I think 3 of them came in the final series against LA.

People keep looking at how Leclair was after he left the habs, but while he was here, he wasn't that good and only seemed to be a 20+ goal scoring forward

 

[Video Coach]

Recchi is not wrong but I rather be a dangerous team to play against then a pain in the ass.

Agree. But think of a team that plays this style, that well, AND has high end finishers like Pittsburgh. That's when this team becomes a real Cup threat.

 

[Habs Halifax]

He was a beast for one series.

During his tenure with M9ntreal he had 40 playoff games and 15 points. 6 goals and I think 3 of them came in the final series against LA.

People keep looking at how Leclair was after he left the habs, but while he was here, he wasn't that good and only seemed to be a 20+ goal scoring forward

What age was Leclair traded at though? Age 25? Not sure. So many players mature in that 25-30 age range don't you think?

Regardless, at the time of the trade, Leclair was not the player we seen with the Flyers.

 

[Le Tricolore]

f*** him

Agreed, 100%. I loved him when he was a Hab, but he could f*** right off.

 

[Fixxer]

I think Domi's the kind of guy who could get under someone's skin during the playoffs.
On the other hand, he has a short leash and he might be the one who could be triggered to go nuts.

 

[montreal]

Leclair was drafted in 87 and had done very little by the time he was traded.

Recchi had al lost 40 more points than anyone else on the flyers when he put up his 123 point season. In his last full season with the flyers he put up 19 more points than anyone else. Granted, Lindros missed almoat 20 games.

The trade looked good for Montreal, but then Leclair took off and Recchi was still good for the habs, but didn't have a talent to play with like Lindros,so Montreal got wrecked in a deal.

the problem was in evaluating him as LeClair came to the Habs after having a huge Senior year at Vermont where he lead his team in scoring and was way over a ppg. He joins the Habs at the end of the season and puts up 7 pts in 10 games as a 21 year old.

The next year he doesn't do too much with the Habs, 19 pts in 59 games and 2 pts in 8 playoff games but in the AHL he scored almost a goal per game (his only time ever in the AHL) but it was just 8 games (7 goals, 14 pts).

His 2nd full pro season is the cup year, he has a solid year as he puts up 44 pts in 72 and is 9th on the team in points, 8th among forwards. Has a good playoffs with 10 pts in 20 games.

His 3rd pro season is more or less a repeat of his 2nd, 43 pts in 74 and 3 pts in 7 playoff games.

He was traded the next season after playing 9 games and putting up 5 pts and just has a massive breakout as soon as he joins the flyers.

In hindsight clearly it looks really bad but at the time you could see something was there from what I recall. I also doubt he becomes the player he was in philly if he stayed with us as we now know that we were heading into some very dark years. I just think they took too much of a gamble trading good young players that had upside, even Dionne who was great in the AHL and was looking like a legit young player but he did the opposite of LeClair as his game just went nowhere after leaving.

 

[BargainBinSpecial]

Well he was a Hab at some point in his career before joining the dark side to become Dr. Recchi. He was my favourite Hab when I was growing up.

The Habs mortgaged their future to acquire him and four years later got so little in return.

 

[bobholly39]

People always talk about Roy trade and it's impact... and they are obviously right. But Leclair/Desjardins trade for Recchi was just a big of a disaster as Roy. At least Roy played in a different conference. Leclair and Co terrorized Habs for years on a regular basis.

Yeah not sure I agree. With hindsight - sure, it looks bad. But Leclair simply hadn't taken the next step with us, and i'm not sure if he would have. Recchi was really good for us. Desjardins was a great D and kept on being great in Philly and arguably got even better, so that hurt. But Dionne didn't amount too much, and I don't think Leclair would have done anywhere near as good as he stayed with us. It's more of a win/win I think.

Roy.....was painful. If Roy had stayed - maybe we win another cup, or 2, or 3...he's a game changer. Not sure had Leclair/Desjardins stayed instead of Recchi we even get the same value, let alone more.

If you look at how good he did it in Philly - sure, it hurts.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Well he was a Hab at some point in his career before joining the dark side to become Dr. Recchi. He was my favourite Hab when I was growing up.

The Habs mortgaged their future to acquire him and four years later got so little in return.

Recchi and Koivu were fun to watch for that short period though. A guy like Recchi would never choose Montreal as a UFA... he only played with the Habs cause he had too due to a trade.

 

[slybel]

Looking at those previous games on TV.... Lafleur, Shutt, Robinson..Bobby Smith, Matts Naslund..Chelios..Damphousse, Bellows, Muller...Koivu, Kovalev... ugggg

 

[llamateizer]

The same piece of shit who said Pacioretty was faking his concussion. Just f*** off Dr. Recchi, don't really care what you have to say.

Recchi said that in order to take some heat off Chara. And it worked.

 

[OldCraig71]

No wonder we have had some ugly years after that '93 cup win, terrible drafting, trading great players like Roy, Chelios, Desjardins (how do you trade a youngish D that scored a hattrick in the playoffs), LeClair, Damphousse, Richer, Turgeon, and a playoff warrior in Claude Lemieux. Trading them wouldn't be so bad if they got equal assets or close to it in return, but alas we didn't and we saw what happened. To think how things may have unfolded if we had different management back then and kept these guys to surround with Koivu and Markov. Oh well, at least we have MB and Molson to show us the way now.

That team could have realistically won or certainly challenged for 2-3 more cups and not only that, it would have been the best possible way to integrate new young talent to the roster. It is much easier for good young players to walk into a situation where that can learn from talented veterans and eventually take over, that's what we did when we were great.

 

[cphabs]

Leclair was so big and strong physically and we never had a player like him since. I remember when Rob Ray went after him and Leclair just knocking him down and hold his own.

I can’t find the hit but Muller had enough of Ray and absolutely destroyed him with a check in his own zone.
That was an awesome series btw. You don’t see that concentration of talent and experience in the league anymore.

 

[cphabs]

Recchi is not wrong but I rather be a dangerous team to play against then a pain in the ass.

Dangerous as in broken necks?

 

[JimboJay]

But one trade that is worse then the Recchi/LeClair/Desjardins trade is the Chelios/2nd round pick for Savard. I was a huge fan of Denis Savard when he was a Hawk but by the time we got him he wasn't close to being the same player.

There's no question that that was a bad trade - but - we did win a cup, so its hard to criticize a trade when you win lord stanley after completing it. Im not saying that Savard was instrumental (or that Chelios wouldnt have been awesome for us) but simply that it didnt destroy the team immediately. Chelios may have not resigned with us at some point either. The weird this is that Chelios had like 12+ more great years, savard only a couple (and even those werent great) despite they fact they were less than a year apart in age. Shows how some players can maintain their abilities far longer than others.

To me, the absolute worst trade of the era (by a wide margin) was Turgeon + Conroy + Fitzpatrick for Baron, Corson and a late pick.

I like corson (See my avatar) but he was clearly on a downward trajectory. Baron was a meh. Turgeon was an elite #1c. Sure we had Damphousse, sure we had Koivu - but then move Vinnie back to the position he played for many years: wing. You dont trade Turgeon for spare parts. And Houle made one of his famous "throw ins" with Conroy (a very serviceable 2b centre). Fitzpatrick for Baron was probably a wash.

If I remember correctly Dionne was part of the package as well. Don't remember him that well, which is likely that he wasn't a big loss.

What was the reason Leclrai and Desjardins got traded? Did they piss someone off?

IIRC We really wanted Recchi and the deal in principle was Recchi for Desjardins. Dionne was the 'balance' since Recchi was coming off a very good season. Never one to shy away from a good throw in, Houle allowed them the young player they wanted, namely, John LeClair. At the time many people felt it was fair since LeClair, while a timely scorer in the playoffs, was projecting as a 40 point player. I dont think many felt he was ever likely to be a 50 goal scorer... but still. those throw-ins... Ah, Rejean.

 

[Habs]

He was a beast for one series.

During his tenure with M9ntreal he had 40 playoff games and 15 points. 6 goals and I think 3 of them came in the final series against LA.

People keep looking at how Leclair was after he left the habs, but while he was here, he wasn't that good and only seemed to be a 20+ goal scoring forward

Nah , no way. I remember loving what he was starting to bring. That size, and a couple of fights that surprised me ... he was starting to come together. Now I'm not suggesting I thought he was going to explode like that, but he did have chemistry and top line minutes in Philly. Also the team really suited his game over there, the Legion of Doom was a perfect scenario for him.

 

[montreal]

There's no question that that was a bad trade - but - we did win a cup, so its hard to criticize a trade when you win lord stanley after completing it. Im not saying that Savard was instrumental (or that Chelios wouldnt have been awesome for us) but simply that it didnt destroy the team immediately. Chelios may have not resigned with us at some point either. The weird this is that Chelios had like 12+ more great years, savard only a couple (and even those werent great) despite they fact they were less than a year apart in age. Shows how some players can maintain their abilities far longer than others.

To me, the absolute worst trade of the era (by a wide margin) was Turgeon + Conroy + Fitzpatrick for Baron, Corson and a late pick.

I like corson (See my avatar) but he was clearly on a downward trajectory. Baron was a meh. Turgeon was an elite #1c. Sure we had Damphousse, sure we had Koivu - but then move Vinnie back to the position he played for many years: wing. You dont trade Turgeon for spare parts. And Houle made one of his famous "throw ins" with Conroy (a very serviceable 2b centre). Fitzpatrick for Baron was probably a wash.

I found this article on the Chelios trade,

What stocks are you buying right now? Part 6

Winning a cup does help and if Savard produced like he did the previous year it wouldn't have stung as much. He did put up 179 pts over the 3 seasons but after his career year in '88 with 131 pts but the next 2 seasons he missed 42 games so they should have seen the risks of him breaking down physically.

But as the article I posted points out there was off-ice concerns and you make a good point about him possibly not re-signing.

The Turgeon trade is indeed another terrible one, as I posted a few posts up about how we traded away so many great to very good players and how along with bad drafting crippled this organization for years to come.

 

[JimboJay]

I found this article on the Chelios trade,

What stocks are you buying right now? Part 6

Winning a cup does help and if Savard produced like he did the previous year it wouldn't have stung as much. He did put up 179 pts over the 3 seasons but after his career year in '88 with 131 pts but the next 2 seasons he missed 42 games so they should have seen the risks of him breaking down physically.

But as the article I posted points out there was off-ice concerns and you make a good point about him possibly not re-signing.

The Turgeon trade is indeed another terrible one, as I posted a few posts up about how we traded away so many great to very good players and how along with bad drafting crippled this organization for years to come.

Agree. I also think that Savard was just a really bad fit for Pat Burn's system. I remember at the time a journalist saying (and im paraphrasing) "Bringing Savard into Pat Burn's defense first system is like running a racehorse though the la brea tar pits"

And yes, the amount of Damage Houle did in a few short years was staggering. Thats why, as much as I dont like MB, I dont think I could ever compare him to Houle as worst GM. Has he made the team better? Not by a lot (if at all) Has he made it worse? Not by much (if at all). Houle set back the franchise by 10 years. MB has basically just wasted his tenure (unfortunately guys like Carey Price's careers may be wasted too).

 

[The Real Timo]

There's no question that that was a bad trade - but - we did win a cup, so its hard to criticize a trade when you win lord stanley after completing it. Im not saying that Savard was instrumental (or that Chelios wouldnt have been awesome for us) but simply that it didnt destroy the team immediately. Chelios may have not resigned with us at some point either. The weird this is that Chelios had like 12+ more great years, savard only a couple (and even those werent great) despite they fact they were less than a year apart in age. Shows how some players can maintain their abilities far longer than others.

To me, the absolute worst trade of the era (by a wide margin) was Turgeon + Conroy + Fitzpatrick for Baron, Corson and a late pick.

I like corson (See my avatar) but he was clearly on a downward trajectory. Baron was a meh. Turgeon was an elite #1c. Sure we had Damphousse, sure we had Koivu - but then move Vinnie back to the position he played for many years: wing. You dont trade Turgeon for spare parts. And Houle made one of his famous "throw ins" with Conroy (a very serviceable 2b centre). Fitzpatrick for Baron was probably a wash.



IIRC We really wanted Recchi and the deal in principle was Recchi for Desjardins. Dionne was the 'balance' since Recchi was coming off a very good season. Never one to shy away from a good throw in, Houle allowed them the young player they wanted, namely, John LeClair. At the time many people felt it was fair since LeClair, while a timely scorer in the playoffs, was projecting as a 40 point player. I dont think many felt he was ever likely to be a 50 goal scorer... but still. those throw-ins... Ah, Rejean.

Indeed... Reggie did quite a number on Habs.

 

[Schooner Guy]

There's no question that that was a bad trade - but - we did win a cup, so its hard to criticize a trade when you win lord stanley after completing it. Im not saying that Savard was instrumental (or that Chelios wouldnt have been awesome for us) but simply that it didnt destroy the team immediately. Chelios may have not resigned with us at some point either. The weird this is that Chelios had like 12+ more great years, savard only a couple (and even those werent great) despite they fact they were less than a year apart in age. Shows how some players can maintain their abilities far longer than others.

To me, the absolute worst trade of the era (by a wide margin) was Turgeon + Conroy + Fitzpatrick for Baron, Corson and a late pick.

I like corson (See my avatar) but he was clearly on a downward trajectory. Baron was a meh. Turgeon was an elite #1c. Sure we had Damphousse, sure we had Koivu - but then move Vinnie back to the position he played for many years: wing. You dont trade Turgeon for spare parts. And Houle made one of his famous "throw ins" with Conroy (a very serviceable 2b centre). Fitzpatrick for Baron was probably a wash.



IIRC We really wanted Recchi and the deal in principle was Recchi for Desjardins. Dionne was the 'balance' since Recchi was coming off a very good season. Never one to shy away from a good throw in, Houle allowed them the young player they wanted, namely, John LeClair. At the time many people felt it was fair since LeClair, while a timely scorer in the playoffs, was projecting as a 40 point player. I dont think many felt he was ever likely to be a 50 goal scorer... but still. those throw-ins... Ah, Rejean.

I hated the Chelios and 2nd for Savard trade when it happened. Chelios was a recent Norris trophy winner who could play 30 minutes per game and was pure nasty to play against. Savard was small and in decline. He had nothing to do with our 1993 Cup win which he watched in a suit.

Another horrible Serge Savard trade was Claude Lemieux for Sylvain Turgeon.

Yes...the Turgeon-Corson trade was brutal. It was a typical Reggie Houle trade. Like you said, Houle would always include a prospect as a throw in even though he was already getting fleeced on the NHL'ers involved. Furthermore our drafting was horrendous during that period and we never replenished the bare cupboards. The Houle era was by far the worst era ever for the Habs.