Canadiens: It Worked Once, Let's Bring Him Back

If Rejean Houle didn't make any friends with the Patrick Roy trade, he doubled down with the Pierre Turgeon to the St-Louis Blues move. The former GM Serge Savard had pried him away from the New York Islanders with Vladimir Malakhov for Craig Darby, Kirk Muller, and Mathieu Schneider.

Turgeon's Time in Montreal

Savard was a firm believer in having as many Quebecers as possible playing for the Montreal Canadiens, and Turgeon's brief stint in Montreal showed how right he was to acquired him. The Rouyn native spent parts of three seasons with the Tricolore, playing 104 games while picking up 127 points. In his only complete season in town, he was quite the offensive dynamo, scoring 96 points in 80 games. 

His 96 points led the team in 1995-1996, and remains the 15th highest points total ever by a Canadiens' player. Vincent Damphousse was second in points that year, putting up 94. That season followed on from the 20 points he put up in 15 games after his arrival in 1994-1995. Turgeon will always be the last Habs player who wore the C in the Montreal Forum and who took the torch from Carbonneau to bring it to the Bell Centre in the closing ceremony. 

He started the 1996-1997 season with 11 points in nine games before GM Houle decided to change things up a bit and executed four trades in 20 days. 

The Trade

Montreal didn't have a great start to the 1996-1997 season, by the time Houle decided to pull the trigger on the deal with the St. Louis Blues, the Canadiens had 4 wins, three losses and 2 ties. 

Houle decided to package Turgeon, Craig Conroy and Rory Fitzpatrick and ship them to the Blues in return for forward Shayne Corson, defenseman Murray Barron and a fifth-round pick at the 1997 NHL Draft. 

The Aftermath

Before the trade Craig Conroy had only played 13 games in the NHL, picking up a single point. He ended up playing part of five seasons in St. Louis, on his way to 1,005 played games career that also took him to Calgary and Los Angeles. When he called it quits, he had 542 points and 603 PIM.

Right-shot defenseman Fitzpatrick had been used in 48 games picking up three points and a minus-nine rating. He wouldn't do much better in St. Louis, playing only three games with the Blues while being held off the score sheet and getting a minus-five cumulative rating. He played for four other NHL teams and three AHL outfits before retiring with 287 NHL games to his name. 

For the Blues though, the main piece of the trade was Turgeon. The talented center played parts of five years in St. Louis, cumulating 85, 68,65,66 and 82 points. He spent two seasons playing with the "Golden Brett" Brett Hull. In 327 games, he put up 355 points, which is a lot more that can be said about Corson in his return to Montreal. 

Turgeon left the Blues as a free agent to sign with the Dallas Stars for three years and completed his career with a short stint in Colorado with the Avalanche. Turgeon played a total of 19 years, 1294 games and produced 1327 points.

As for the Canadiens, they held on to Corson for four seasons but his best years were definitely behind him. In 253 games, he picked up 139 points and racked up 450 PIM. He could still play a physical game, but for a team that was already struggling to score and would trade Vincent Damphousse for next to nothing in 1999, some offense wouldn't have gone amiss. 

Finally, Murray Barron would play 60 games with the Canadiens registering six points, a minus-16 rating and 107 PIM. He was then sent to the Phoenix Coyotes (as they were called back then) with Chris Murray at the trade deadline in return for Dave Manson. That defenseman would later be used to acquire Jeff Hackett from the Chicago Blackhawks, meaning Montreal had essentially traded away skills, talent and offensive production for a goaltender who would soon become nothing more than Jose Theodore's back-up.

This remains, to me, one of the weirdest trades the Canadiens have ever done. They had a genuine star on their hands; a local guy who could speak the language and was fast heading for the Hockey Hall of Fame, and trading him away for not much in the end. I would honestly love to hear what Houle was thinking when he concluded that deal and a few others to be fair. I wonder if there's a biography coming up that could shed some light on those deals...