Was Rejean Houle the worst GM in NHL history?

[Blades of Glory]

Rejean Houle's tenure as GM in Montreal has to go down as one of the most baffling, horrific, and utterly shocking front office disasters in history. He practically built the Philadelphia Flyers into one of the best teams in hockey, helping them acquire what amounted to their entire core. Quite an accomplishment, until you remember he was working for the Montreal Canadiens. Some of Houle's accomplishments:

-Patrick Roy to Colorado for Thibault, Rucinsky, and Kovalenko
-Mark Recchi to Philadelphia for Dainus Zubrus
-Vincent Damphousse to San Jose for a 1st, 2nd, and 5th rounder
-Pierre Turgeon and Craig Conroy for Murray Baron and Shayne Corson
-His first round picks were Matt Higgins, Jason Ward, Eric Chouinard, Ron Hainsey, and Marcel Hossa

Serge Savard had built a decent team going into the 1995-96 season, with a strong group of forwards led by Turgeon, Recchi, and Damphousse and developing youngsters like Saku Koivu and Valeri Bure. While Savard had gutted the defense over the past half-decade, but Eric Desjardins was the price they had to pay for Recchi, and no one could have expected John Leclair to do what he ended up doing on Eric Lindros' wing. Besides, they had Patrick Roy in goal. What in the name of God happened? Even after the Roy deal, during which Houle was put in a tough situation thanks to Mario Tremblay's idiocy, he continued to give away very good players for absolutely nothing. Most notable was his habit of believing slightly older players were finished just because they were struggling for half a season, aka Mark Recchi and Vincent Damphousse, who were traded during down seasons and went on to play at an extremely high level for a long, long time afterwards. I mean, could Houle actually have been a Flyers insider planted by Bobby Clarke? The Flyers basically acquired Recchi, Desjardins, and Leclair for Dainus Zubrus and a draft pick.

My question is, how many GM's have as terrible a record in a tenure in the league as Rejean Houle did? Is he, given the team he was handed, and the team he left behind, the worst GM in history? I think an argument can be made that Houle's 6 or so year run as Montreal's GM between 1995-2000 was the most devastating tenure by a single GM in recent NHL history. I don't even think Mike Milbury was that bad in terms of giving star players away for nothing.

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[GNick42]

Houle was pretty bad...not sure if worse in league history but worse in Habs history. Overall, I think he was in part at least, a yes-yes guy to Ronald Corey. It is why Houle was bought in. Corey could control the team. Houle had no back bone and would not stand up to him

 

[Canadiens Fan]

I would think the case could be made for Savard as a Flyers "insider" way more than Houle. His trade with Philadelphia was way more harmful long-term.

As for the issue at hand, Houle was overmatched as a general manager and woefully unprepared.

 

[jkrx]

He is definitly down there with Cliff Fletcher, Milbury and Sather (this guy is highly overrated).

Milbury is the absolute worst though.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Ronald Corey

Ronald Corey, after the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1986 soon became a parody of what a team president should be.

The Circle des Etoiles fiasco. His concerns with the team image while being totally oblivious to problems and solutions. His inability to support his coaches or create any sense of harmony within the organization produced a downward spiral that final stopped when Pierre Boivin hired Bob Gainey.

Rejean Houle was a desperation hire after Ronald Corey decided to fire Serge Savard as GM and Jacques Demers as coach. Easy to do BUT Ron Corey did not have any suitable replacements lined-up and no one familiar with the inner working of the team was going to take the job. So Ronald Corey wound up promoting two loyal foot soldiers, organizational men, Rejean Houle and Mario Tremblay into positions that they had hardly any qualifications to hold.

Circle des Etoiles like results followed.

 

[Dennis Bonvie]

He is definitly down there with Cliff Fletcher, Milbury and Sather (this guy is highly overrated).

Milbury is the absolute worst though.

I thought this was commom knowledge.

 

[jkrx]

I thought this was commom knowledge.

Fletcher isnt that far from Milbury though...

 

[The Mauve Avenger]

Fletcher isnt that far from Milbury though...

I don't think anyone comes close to Milbury in terms of GM badness. There are bad GMs, and then there is Milbury who is on whole new level of bad.

 

[habsjunkie2*]

Fletcher isnt that far from Milbury though...

I agree with Fletcher being horrible, but it takes a special person to be in Milbury company.

MMFTW by a longshot.

 

[reckoning]

Fletcher built a team into a Stanley Cup champion. I'd hardly call that horrible.

Some other candidates for worst ever:

Randy Sexton
John Ferguson Jr.
George Maguire
Ray Miron

 

[Heat McManus]

My vote goes to Milbury.

 

[Lowetide]

Oilers fans saw Fletcher's work in Calgary and he was outstanding GM for them. He also made some exceptional moves for Toronto (and would have done more if the counting room hadn't stopped him).

His more recent work might have sullied his reputation, but in his prime Cliff Fletcher was very, very good.

 

[CanadianHockey]

Millbury was the worst.

 

[sr edler]

Fletcher built a team into a Stanley Cup champion. I'd hardly call that horrible

this

fletcher built that 89 flames team from the ground ... he was also instrumental in making the maple leafs competative in the early 90s by robbing doug gilmour with him from the flames, so calling him the worst gm ever is dilusional

 

[Reds4Life]

Don Waddell is pretty bad too.

 

[GNick42]

Ronald Corey, after the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup in 1986 soon became a parody of what a team president should be.

The Circle des Etoiles fiasco. His concerns with the team image while being totally oblivious to problems and solutions. His inability to support his coaches or create any sense of harmony within the organization produced a downward spiral that final stopped when Pierre Boivin hired Bob Gainey.

Rejean Houle was a desperation hire after Ronald Corey decided to fire Serge Savard as GM and Jacques Demers as coach. Easy to do BUT Ron Corey did not have any suitable replacements lined-up and no one familiar with the inner working of the team was going to take the job. So Ronald Corey wound up promoting two loyal foot soldiers, organizational men, Rejean Houle and Mario Tremblay into positions that they had hardly any qualifications to hold.

Circle des Etoiles like results followed.

Corey forced Savard to trade so many top players because they tarnished the CH image. Guy Carbonneau give the media the finger on golf course...gone. Chelios naked at a barbeque...gone. Lemieux..gone. Same with Corson and Schneider. Other teams knew this and only offered peanuts in return. We didn't have much choice but to make the moves

 

[Tavaresmagicalplay*]

Fletcher isnt that far from Milbury though...

I don't know about that. How is Fletcher that bad? Didn't he acquire Doug Gilmour for Toronto? Didn't he build the Calgary Flames into a cup contender? Hell he's the guy who traded up for Luke Schenn. He's made a bunch of solid moves.

 

[Blades of Glory]

Count me in as one of those slightly confused by the Cliff Fletcher talk. He may not have been Sam Pollock, but to call him one of the worst GM's ever is a little difficult to justify. He built a Cup champion from scratch, literally acquiring every player on that Stanley Cup-winning team, and continued his strong work in Toronto during the Doug Gilmour era. I really have no idea how anyone can call a GM who did what he did anything close to the worst ever.

I think Houle and Milbury are in a similar class.

 

[jkrx]

Cliff Fletcher did good in Calgary agreed and started good in Toronto but then what?

Deadline 96 he traded Kenny Jönsson, Darby Hendrickson, Sean Haggerty and a 1st round pick (Luongo) for Clark and Schneider He also lost Rhodes and Belanger to get Beaupre and Kirk Muller. 3 picks including a 1st rounder (Zubrus) for Yuchkevich. Andreychuk for a 2nd rounder and a 4th. Gartner for a 4th rounder. By 97 they were the worst team in the west and had to lose Gilmour, Ellett and Muller.

At the draft in 92 lost possible players liek Kasparitis and Carey (plus Ustorf and Jakopin) to get Brandon Convery, Grant Marshall and Mike Raitar.

By the time of the Kenny Jönsson trade he had traded 12 of the teams 18 most promising prospects. He were not a very good long term GM for the leafs.

 

[Pandemic]

Mike Milbury says Howdy

 

[Big Phil]

Fletcher isnt that far from Milbury though...

I know you are a harsh critic of Gilmour but that trade Fletcher made was highway robbery to get him.

Plus he built a Cup winner. Even though a guy like Brian Burke looks ridiculous for his Kessel trade right now, the truth is a Cup winning GM can never be considered to be an utter failure.

Don Waddell has pretty much bent over for other GMs in the NHL

Milbury was out of control, thats the best way to describe him

Sather post 2000 has certainly been the worst. You can't penalize the guy because of his Oiler days (although he should have done better damage control to prevent the trade of Gretzky) but since he arrived in NY the truth is the game has passed him by. A prime Wade Redden would never get $6.5 million a year. Sather gave it to him when everyone knew his career was going in the toilet, which it is.

 

[Super Fadio Bro]

No, Houle wasn't the worst GM in NHL history; Mike Milburry hold the title (and will never give it up).

 

[JackSlater]

Cliff Fletcher did good in Calgary agreed and started good in Toronto but then what?

More than a slight understatement with regard to Fletcher's work in Calgary. Fletcher built the Flames team that made the 1986 finals over the dynastic Oilers and later the 1989 Stanley Cup team. Those accomplishments alone remove his name from discussion for worst general manager ever, aka Milbury's level. During Fletcher's time with Calgary and his early years in Toronto he was one of the best general managers in the game. His poor trades with Toronto later in his career do not override the great work he did in prior years.

 

[Kyle McMahon]

Not the worst ever, but before the Blue Jackets finally canned him, I'd say Doug MacLean was the worst in the league. Weak draft record, and repeatedly brought in past their prime veterans as band-aid solutions instead of trying to build around younger players. I don't recall any trades he made that made you think he was getting a good deal. Even a guy like Don Waddell managed to scam Marc Savard out of Calgary for some magic beans (which introduces former Calgary GM Craig Button to this discussion).

 

[Cool Beans Man]

Cliff Fletcher did good in Calgary agreed and started good in Toronto but then what?

Deadline 96 he traded Kenny Jönsson, Darby Hendrickson, Sean Haggerty and a 1st round pick (Luongo) for Clark and Schneider He also lost Rhodes and Belanger to get Beaupre and Kirk Muller. 3 picks including a 1st rounder (Zubrus) for Yuchkevich. Andreychuk for a 2nd rounder and a 4th. Gartner for a 4th rounder. By 97 they were the worst team in the west and had to lose Gilmour, Ellett and Muller.

At the draft in 92 lost possible players liek Kasparitis and Carey (plus Ustorf and Jakopin) to get Brandon Convery, Grant Marshall and Mike Raitar.

By the time of the Kenny Jönsson trade he had traded 12 of the teams 18 most promising prospects. He were not a very good long term GM for the leafs.

Find me a GM with a perfect record and no unfavourable moves in their career. There's a reason Cliff Fletcher is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. His career is certainly very decorated and he was a great GM.