What happens with Roy and Montreal if December 2nd, 1995 is just a normal game?

[Nerowoy nora tolad]

Lacroix and Savard had hammered out the details and Savard asked Lacroix if he could "sleep" on it. In the morning Savard decided that he would be "hated" in Montreal for making the trade and informed Lacroix it wasn't going to happen. Lacroix asked if he things could change once the season got underway and Savard said he didn't see a scenario where he could trade Patrick Roy and keep his job. He must have been aware he was on thin and was perhaps having a conversation about trading Roy out of desperation.

Slight tangent, but why on earth was Savard on the firing line two years after winning a cup? Everything about Savard that Ive ever seen screams "Keep this guy in your head office in some role for life"

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Slight tangent, but why on earth was Savard on the firing line two years after winning a cup? Everything about Savard that Ive ever seen screams "Keep this guy in your head office in some role for life"

after a run of horrendous trades—chelios for the other savard, claude lemieux for the other turgeon, lumme for a 2nd, lefebvre for a 3rd, diduck for a 4th, desjardins and leclair for recchi—i think the prevailing opinion was they won the cup in spite of his work, not because of it.

but yeah, a decent organization “promotes” a guy like serge savard to a desk somewhere in the bowels of the bell centre and trots him out when hands need shaking and babies need kissing.

 

[FerrisRox]

Slight tangent, but why on earth was Savard on the firing line two years after winning a cup? Everything about Savard that Ive ever seen screams "Keep this guy in your head office in some role for life"

The team has missed the playoffs and the Mark Recchi trade had blown up in his face and the deal to acquire Pierre Turgeon failed to get them into the post-season so I suppose pressure was mounting.

 

[Sentinel]

To the OP: the Wings would have had a few more Cups.

 

[hitman9172]

Wasn’t Roy supposed to be traded to the Red Wings? I remember reading that Detroit was his most likely landing spot, but then with Quebec relocating to Colorado, they became a viable trading partner for Montreal.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

some context from contemporary a source, secondhand via a blog:

Wigge's article highlights the multitude of dilemas facing the Canadiens in October 1995, and while it points to Demers' demise days later, it does not foreshadow GM Serge Savard being thrown to the wolves as well. Savard, for the record, was canned for refusing to give up so quickly on his coach, The Sporting News article is below.

...

"When they had Eric Desjardins and Mathieu Schneider back there on defense, the rest of their defensemen looked OK," says Devils right wing Stephane Richer, naming off J.J. Daigneault, Patrice Brisebois, Lyle Odelein. "But without Desjardins and Schneider, they can be exploited - big time. They make a lot of mistakes in the own zone."

The Canadiens outshot the Devils, 41-17, last Saturday but lost, 4-1. It was Montreal's fourth consecutive defeat - the team's worst start since the Canadiens began the 1938-39 season 0-7.

...

The trades that sent Desjardins and John LeClair to the Flyers for Recchi and shipped Kirk Muller and Schneider to the Islanders for Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov were unmitigated disasters last season. They not only stripped the Canadiens of their two best defensemen, but the heart and soul of the team, too. No coach would be able to fix this mess. But listless play on the ice always spells the end for the coach. And the next phone call Demers gets from the Canadiens likely will be his last as coach of Montreal.


A Day That Altered Habs History

 

[tarheelhockey]

What if Roy doesnt meet up with Mike Vernon (who floated the idea to Roy about demanding a trade) for lunch the day before that game. Roy was already very frustrated and voiced his displeasures to Vernon and Vernon told Roy how much things improved for him after leaving Calgary in 94.

What if Roy doesn’t meet Vernon for lunch, doesn’t end up eating that bad salami, feels great when he gets up the next day, and plays great in a 1-0 win?

 

[Staniowski]

some context from contemporary a source, secondhand via a blog:

Wigge's article highlights the multitude of dilemas facing the Canadiens in October 1995, and while it points to Demers' demise days later, it does not foreshadow GM Serge Savard being thrown to the wolves as well. Savard, for the record, was canned for refusing to give up so quickly on his coach, The Sporting News article is below.

...

"When they had Eric Desjardins and Mathieu Schneider back there on defense, the rest of their defensemen looked OK," says Devils right wing Stephane Richer, naming off J.J. Daigneault, Patrice Brisebois, Lyle Odelein. "But without Desjardins and Schneider, they can be exploited - big time. They make a lot of mistakes in the own zone."

The Canadiens outshot the Devils, 41-17, last Saturday but lost, 4-1. It was Montreal's fourth consecutive defeat - the team's worst start since the Canadiens began the 1938-39 season 0-7.

...

The trades that sent Desjardins and John LeClair to the Flyers for Recchi and shipped Kirk Muller and Schneider to the Islanders for Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov were unmitigated disasters last season. They not only stripped the Canadiens of their two best defensemen, but the heart and soul of the team, too. No coach would be able to fix this mess. But listless play on the ice always spells the end for the coach. And the next phone call Demers gets from the Canadiens likely will be his last as coach of Montreal.


A Day That Altered Habs History

Serge Savard oversaw some good drafting years in the '80s (though it's hard to know how much credit he deserves for this), but his trades were generally bad. He dismantled a very good and deep team.

The Habs defensemen in 1990 included:
Chris Chelios
Eric Desjardins
Mathieu Schneider
Petr Svoboda
Craig Ludwig
Sylvain Lefevbre
Jyrki Lumme

They could have sailed through the '90s and to the end of the DPE with this group. But they traded every single one of them, and this is the primary reason the team declined. They also traded their best young forward (LeClair), their best defensive forward (Carbonneau), and others.

The decline of the team is what led, ultimately, to the Roy trade. The team was going down with or without Roy. He was lucky to get out when he did, and obviously very lucky to be going to the best up-and-coming team in the NHL.

Patrick Roy was traded from a team - Montreal - that, months before - didn't make the playoffs with him, to a team - Colorado - that, months before, finished 2nd overall in the NHL without him.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Serge Savard oversaw some good drafting years in the '80s (though it's hard to know how much credit he deserves for this), but his trades were generally very bad. He dismantled a very good and deep team.

The Habs defensemen in 1990 were, inter alia:
Chris Chelios
Eric Desjardins
Mathieu Schneider
Petr Svoboda
Craig Ludwig
Sylvain Lefevbre
Jyrki Lumme

They could have sailed through the '90s and to the end of the DPE with this group. But they traded every single one of them, and this is the primary reason the team declined. They also traded their best young forward (LeClair), their best defensive forward (Carbonneau), and others.

The decline of the team is what led, ultimately, to the Roy trade. The team was going down with or without Roy. He was lucky to get out when he did, and obviously very lucky to be going to the best up-and-coming team in the NHL.

Patrick Roy was traded from a team - Montreal - that, months before - didn't make the playoffs with him, to a team - Colorado - that, months before, finished 2nd overall in the NHL without him.

to be fair, the ludwig for diduck trade was a good trade. savard just then turned around four months later and traded diduck for nothing, which was foolish. worse yet was then trading svoboda away for kevin haller a year later, basically swapping a good middle pair two-way guy for a crappy version of diduck.

i can imagine habs fans watching the 1994 playoffs and seeing the canucks make the finals with lumme and diduck as their two best defensemen and shaking their heads.

as for his other wheelings and dealings, savard had some good trades and some horrendous trades. the bad ones were so bad they overshadowed his good ones, which were legitimately good and you don't win in '93 without them.

corson for damphousse was spectacular, courtnall for bellows was very good, richer for muller was fantastic. there's your top three scorers right there for three guys that were not only inferior but all of whom had to be moved.

 

[Staniowski]

to be fair, the ludwig for diduck trade was a good trade. savard just then turned around four months later and traded diduck for nothing, which was foolish. worse yet was then trading svoboda away for kevin haller a year later, basically swapping a good middle pair two-way guy for a crappy version of diduck.

i can imagine habs fans watching the 1994 playoffs and seeing the canucks make the finals with lumme and diduck as their two best defensemen and shaking their heads.

as for his other wheelings and dealings, savard had some good trades and some horrendous trades. the bad ones were so bad they overshadowed his good ones, which were legitimately good and you don't win in '93 without them.

corson for damphousse was spectacular, courtnall for bellows was very good, richer for muller was fantastic. there's your top three scorers right there for three guys that were not only inferior but all of whom had to be moved.

Yes, there were some good trades too.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Serge Savard oversaw some good drafting years in the '80s (though it's hard to know how much credit he deserves for this), but his trades were generally very bad. He dismantled a very good and deep team.

The Habs defensemen in 1990 were, inter alia:
Chris Chelios
Eric Desjardins
Mathieu Schneider
Petr Svoboda
Craig Ludwig
Sylvain Lefevbre
Jyrki Lumme

They could have sailed through the '90s and to the end of the DPE with this group. But they traded every single one of them, and this is the primary reason the team declined. They also traded their best young forward (LeClair), their best defensive forward (Carbonneau), and others.

The decline of the team is what led, ultimately, to the Roy trade. The team was going down with or without Roy. He was lucky to get out when he did, and obviously very lucky to be going to the best up-and-coming team in the NHL.

Patrick Roy was traded from a team - Montreal - that, months before - didn't make the playoffs with him, to a team - Colorado - that, months before, finished 2nd overall in the NHL without him.

one thing i'd say, re: the OP, is that i can't imagine roy sticking around into the years when koivu is hurt and oleg petrov or yanic perreault are leading the habs in scoring. but tbh i think he'd have been long gone by then.

some old habs conversation that went into deep detail about savard's dismantling of that deep defense and about what staying in montreal might have looked like to roy in '95—

How about the exodus of defensive talent that occurred through the early to mid 90's.

If the Habs had held on to their own drafted defence, they could have fielded this group at the start of the 96/97 season:

Chelios-Desjardins
Schneider-Lumme
Odelein-Brisbois
Sean Hill

That is a pretty darn good D corps. It should be noted, not a single one of these guys was drafted in the first round.

Instead, they dressed this train wreck:

Malakhov-Brisebois
Popovic-Quintal
Wilkie-Rivet
Rory Fitzpatrick

or if you go year-by-year, it looks even uglier.



robinson (let go as a free agent; plays three more years with gretzky in LA, and was still pretty decent for the first two while also providing important veteran leadership)

1990

chelios (for savard; goes on to win two norrises and play 2/3 of his hall of fame career elsewhere)

ludwig (for gerald diduck in an age for youth trade; goes on to be a useful vet and wins a cup with the stars a decade later)

lumme (for a 2nd round pick; goes on to be vancouver's #1 defenseman for almost a decade)

1991

diduck (for a 4th round pick; becomes a steady and physical top four on some very good vancouver teams, forms a very underrated shutdown pair with dave babych during the run to the '94 finals)

1992

svoboda (for kevin haller; never lives up to his top prospect status but makes it to 1,000 games as a top four guy the entire time, including on the '97 flyers team that got murdered by detroit in the finals)

1992 offseason

lefebvre (for a 3rd round pick; becomes one of the league's best defensive defenseman on the back-to-back campbell finals leafs teams, then wins a cup with the avs in '96 before going out to pasture on a big contract from the rangers)


[so the '93 stanley cup champion core that was desjardins, odelein, schneider, daigneault, haller, and brisebois sticks together for a few years, but then...]


1995

desjardins (with leclair for mark recchi; goes on to be philly's number one defenseman for a decade and peaks as a top five defenseman in the league for a few years)

schneider (with muller for turgeon and malakhov; goes on to play forever, mostly as an excellent offensive guy but an adventure in his own zone, peaks late as a fringe norris guy in his early 30s)

1996

odelein (to reacquire stephane richer; plays almost another decade as mostly a tough bottom pair guy, captains the expansion columbus bluejackets)


which, as jamyzb tells us, leaves the habs with: malakhov, brisebois, popovic, quintal, wilkie, rivet, and the great rory fitzpatrick.

To add to this :

Nov. 1995 :
Realizing Patrick Labrecque doesn't cut it, JJ Daigneault is sent to St-Louis for Pat Jablonski.

...Yep. Jablonski represented an actual upgrade on somebody.

/

my first favourite team was the habs in late 80s/early 90s. basically the roy era, beginning with the '86 cup run, rooting against the flames in '89 once i'd started to understand as a youngster in vancouver that i was supposed to hate those guys (plus, otto kicked it in), and getting really caught up in the '93 run. roy was my first favourite player, before pavel bure came along. and it was painful to watch the mismanagement of the habs in the post-serge savard era. i mean, you went from serge savard, who made some pretty big mistakes (chelios, desjardins/leclair, carbonneau, lefebvre, claude lemieux) but who still won two cups and was a highly credible legend of the game, not to mention awardee of the order of canada in '94, to ex-hab dregs like houle and tremblay. and all of this while watching minnesota make it to the finals and then later becoming a powerhouse in dallas under bob gainey, jersey winning the year roy was traded under lemaire and robinson, and later bowman in detroit and of course roy himself in colorado. the entire late 90s and some of the early 2000s (nine straight cups) were dominated by ex-hab hall of famers -- not to mention ex-hab role players being leadership and "glue" guys on three of the era's four dominant teams. and in all of this time, the actual habs franchise looks like a farce.

so i'm trying to think about this from roy's perspective. the man seemed to love being hab, and you can still see that from the great interview ivan13 mentioned above. but at the same time, i think we all know that being a hab when things are good might be the best job in hockey, or at least a close second to being a leaf during good times. but the job also comes with things that suck: the fans can be great or they can be a nightmare, and when times are bad the constant scrutiny and especially the rabid press is not something you'd want to deal with. but you take the bad because the good can be so good, and for the honour and pride of wearing that uniform and being a part of that history and walking in the footsteps of morenz, rocket, beliveau, flower, etc.

so i'm thinking i'm patrick roy in 1995. the fans have turned on me, tremblay is probably trying to be tough like scotty bowman but failing miserably at it (plus i already hate the guy from my playing days), rejean houle is just a figurehead who can't stand up to an increasingly out of touch ronald corey (notice it's not houle that roy tells he's played his last game), i've probably heard rumours that my captain is on his way out because he won't learn french (and probably suspecting also that the next captain is going to be the french speaking wiener who was hiding on the bench with his head down while my brother was kicked in the head), the habs had just missed the playoffs for the first time since... i was 5 years old, while lemaire and robinson had just won a stanley cup with a young french goalie and my old buddies claude lemieux and stephane richer and i'm stuck with tremblay and houle.

even taking the embarrassment, disrespect, and his pride and ego out of the equation, patrick roy was a smart guy. i wonder if in the moment the fans were giving it to him after the easy fedorov save he decided in his head: "you know what? what's the point in dealing with the bs of being a hab if this franchise isn't even really the habs anymore?"

(i mean, for all the crap we give kevin lowe, craig mactavish, and associates today, houle and tremblay were probably worse in terms of being incompetent cronies)

 

[Staniowski]

one thing i'd say, re: the OP, is that i can't imagine roy sticking around into the years when koivu is hurt and oleg petrov or yanic perreault are leading the habs in scoring. but tbh i think he'd have been long gone by then.

some old habs conversation that went into deep detail about savard's dismantling of that deep defense and about what staying in montreal might have looked like to roy in '95—







/

I recently watched one of the games of the '96 World Cup , USA - Canada, and I was thinking about the former Habs defensemen. Chelios often looked like the best player on either team, and Schneider and Desjardins both looked very good too. All 3 had great mobility on the ice. I think Lumme also played well in that tournament.

 

[FerrisRox]

after a run of horrendous trades—chelios for the other savard, claude lemieux for the other turgeon, lumme for a 2nd, lefebvre for a 3rd, diduck for a 4th, desjardins and leclair for recchi—i think the prevailing opinion was they won the cup in spite of his work, not because of it.

That was not the prevailing opinion at all.

They won the Cup because of three fantastic trades he made leading up to that run. He swapped Stephane Richer and Tom Chorske for Kirk Muller and Rollie Melanson. Muller was the heart and soul of that club and and had a 94-point season in 1992-93 then added 17 more points in the playoffs. Then in the summer before the 92-93 campaign he made there key moves for that Cup win. He replaced Pat Burns with Jacques Demers and with his new coach the club abandoned that boring, stifling style that Burns preached and as such Savard made two key trades to bolster the clubs offence. He shipped out Shayne Corson and Vladimir Vujtek to acquire Vincent Damphousse (who posted 97 points in the regular season then added 23 more in the playoffs) and he swapped Russ Courtnall for Brian Bellows who potted 40-goals and 88 points for the Canadiens in the regular season then chipped in 15 more in the playoffs.

Without those key acquisitions there's no way that team wins the Stanley Cup.

 

[JaymzB]

i can imagine habs fans watching the 1994 playoffs and seeing the canucks make the finals with lumme and diduck as their two best defensemen and shaking their heads.

As a die hard Habs fan at the time, I can certainly remember thinking Lumme was someone who really got away. Diduck though? I don't think he ever crossed my mind. To me he was a dime a dozen journeyman defenseman who could be, and was easily replaced.

To be fair, I can't say I remember watching him all that closely in Vancouver, so obviously he had raised his game there.

 

[NORiculous]

Serge Savard almost traded him for Brett Hull just before this.

I thought Savard said it was for Fiset and Nolan.

 

[CupInSIX]

I thought Savard said it was for Fiset and Nolan.

I just remember his name being out there after Keenan inexplicably traded Joseph as compensation for signing Corson and went with Fuhr as the #1. Although trading for Roy would have been a very un-Keenan move, and they had already traded away Shanahan that summer.

Nolan and Fiset was probably more attractive to Savard.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

As a die hard Habs fan at the time, I can certainly remember thinking Lumme was someone who really got away. Diduck though? I don't think he ever crossed my mind. To me he was a dime a dozen journeyman defenseman who could be, and was easily replaced.

To be fair, I can't say I remember watching him all that closely in Vancouver, so obviously he had raised his game there.

diduck was great. he was big, strong, tough to play against, great at blocking shots, and really good defensively. probably not a guy anyone around the league would really notice because he didn't score much, but a high end #3. he did the heavy defensive lifting on vancouver's shutdown pair for a few years, paired with babych. imo it was a legit argument whether diduck or lumme was the most valuable canucks defenseman during those years.

the way i like to think about it, the totally overblown hype for kevin bieksa earlier in the decade when don cherry developed that huge mancrush on him, that was the player diduck actually was. (i loved him, but bieksa wasn't a fraction of the player people said he was defensively.)

 

[FerrisRox]

diduck was great. he was big, strong, tough to play against, great at blocking shots, and really good defensively. probably not a guy anyone around the league would really notice because he didn't score much, but a high end #3. he did the heavy defensive lifting on vancouver's shutdown pair for a few years, paired with babych. imo it was a legit argument whether diduck or lumme was the most valuable canucks defenseman during those years.

Just an opinion, but I think you are grossly exaggerating Gerald Diduck's skillset.

As a Montreal Canadiens fan, I had no issue with them dealing him away and I didn't have any pangs of regret watching him in Vancouver in 1994. Lumme, Brown, Hedican and even Babych stood out more to me than Gerald Diduck.

Calling him a high end #3 is a way off to me. He was a bottom three guy to me who was capable in his own zone but needed to be paired with someone that moved the puck well or his pair wasn't gonna get much done.

If he was a high end #3 as you claim, why did the Canucks dump him for nothing a year after that trip to the Final?

 

[LeBlondeDemon10]

Also, Chelios was shipped out for Savard because of a significant off ice issue, which I won't state because I don't know the exact details or if its true. In other words, S. Savard was forced to trade him. Although the prevailing feeling at the time was the Habs were robbed, D. Savard was coming off a 80 pt season in 60 games and 22 playoff pts in 20 games. Pretty darn good. Unfortunately, he was on the decline and could never replicate what he did in Chicago. Its really too bad he was injured in the 93 playoffs because Savard deserved to be on the ice when they won.

 

[vadim sharifijanov]

Just an opinion, but I think you are grossly exaggerating Gerald Diduck's skillset.

As a Montreal Canadiens fan, I had no issue with them dealing him away and I didn't have any pangs of regret watching him in Vancouver in 1994. Lumme, Brown, Hedican and even Babych stood out more to me than Gerald Diduck.

Calling him a high end #3 is a way off to me. He was a bottom three guy to me who was capable in his own zone but needed to be paired with someone that moved the puck well or his pair wasn't gonna get much done.

If he was a high end #3 as you claim, why did the Canucks dump him for nothing a year after that trip to the Final?

his wife was from connecticut and they had been asking for a trade closer to home for a while. finally, quinn flipped him for a third at the trade deadline, knowing that he was going to lose him for nothing anyway in the offseason.

re: value, he was a pure rental for chicago and a third rounder is pretty consistent with what a good #3 costs at the deadline. then he signed a longterm contract worth more than a million per year that summer with hartford. that was a lot of money at the time for a pure defensive guy. other teams reportedly offered him more money, but diduck's wife was from connecticut. (diduck was almost traded to hartford once before, during the petr nedved holdout for the nylander, james patrick, and zalapski that eventually went to calgary for gary suter, but nedved signed st louis' offer sheet before the trade was finalized.)

hedican and brown were the third pair in '94, btw. brown logged heavy PP minutes though, of course.

 

[The Panther]

I disagree that the Bellows for Courtnall trade was good for Montreal. Bellows was older, had only two productive seasons for the Habs, and then was traded for peanuts return (Mark Bureau). Bellows had 6 goals for Montreal in their Cup run, which is fine, but I think Courtnall would easily have matched that (he had 8 in just 13 games in 1991, and 8 in the Finals' run in '89), and he also had very productive regular seasons in 1993 and 1994 (weirdly, Courtnall and Bellows each scored exactly 159 points the two seasons right after the trade). At least, I would say it was a wash. I don't think the trade was a win for Montreal.

 

[FerrisRox]

D. Savard was coming off a 80 pt season in 60 games and 22 playoff pts in 20 games. Pretty darn good. Unfortunately, he was on the decline and could never replicate what he did in Chicago. Its really too bad he was injured in the 93 playoffs because Savard deserved to be on the ice when they won.

Make no mistake, Pat Burns played an enormous role in Savard's offensive downturn in Montreal.

Handing Pat Burns a player like Denis Savard is like handing Foie gras to a cook at McDonald's - they have no appreciation for what makes it valuable and they are guaranteed to use it in the wrong way.

 

[FerrisRox]

I disagree that the Bellows for Courtnall trade was good for Montreal. Bellows was older, had only two productive seasons for the Habs, and then was traded for peanuts return (Mark Bureau).

Courtnall scored 1 goal and just two points in 10 playoff games in the Spring of 1992. He was done in Montreal.

Over the next three years, he managed just one more playoff goal. To ship him out and acquire a veteran forward who played with some jam and contributed 40-goals was a huge win for the Canadiens. That he was subsequently traded away for a poor return does not reflect on the initial deal.

 

[The Panther]

Courtnall scored 1 goal and just two points in 10 playoff games in the Spring of 1992. He was done in Montreal.

I did notice that, and I assume it was that poor (offensive) showing in '92 that led them to dispense with him...? He was injured most of 1991-92, though, so I do think that was a bit short-sighted by Montreal.

Over the next three years, he managed just one more playoff goal.

Or you could also say that in his next 20 playoff games after the trade, Courtnall scored 21 points. Bellows had fewer points in his next 20 playoff games after that trade than Courtnall did.

If you just wanted a one-note sniper, Bellows is preferable. But I think mature Courtnall (after the 80s, say) could do more things for a team. He matched Bellows' offensive production (scoring and playmaking), while also being the fastest guy on the ice and a valuable penalty-killer.

 

[frontsfan2005]

If Dec. 2/95 is a normal game (say Detroit wins 3-1 instead of 11-1), then obviously Roy wouldn't have been traded four days later.

That said, I think if Montreal continued to flounder (they were in a 0-4-1 skid after the Wings game, falling to 12-11-1, although still in second place in the division), I think the blowup between Roy and Tremblay/Houle still happens. The tension between them was growing and something was likely bound to happen very soon regardless of the Wings game.

If Roy blows up at management a week or two later, he likely still gets traded for the same package. If it happens near the trade deadline, I'd think Montreal hangs on to Roy and see what happens in the post-season. If it's a quick first round exit, Roy probably demands a trade and management will accommodate him (Detroit/Colorado his likely destination, depending of the outcome of the 96 playoffs). I'm not sure if even a deep playoff run or possible championship keeps Roy in Montreal in 96-97 unless there are major changes with the front office/coaching staff.

With no Roy, the Avalanche likely look to upgrade their goaltending during the 95-96 season. Curtis Joseph was a holdout at the time before signing with the Oilers in January/96. Does Colorado try to deal for Joseph? If Cujo signs with Edmoton, maybe the Avs take a look at the newly-available Bill Ranford? Is Ed Belfour available in 95-96? Do they go after a cheap, serviceable goalie such as Kelly Hrudey from the rebuilding Kings, who had just been to the cup finals three years earlier?