I have to admit when it comes to Provost I am on the fence. Part of me knows he deserves it based on who is already in. But the other part of me knows that is not the way to determine if a guy should get in. He's been dead for 40 years, suffered a heart attack in 1984 when he was only 50. That's young. But let's name the 1950s HHOFers on the Habs:
Richard, Beliveau, H. Richard, Geoffrion, Harvey, Plante, Moore, Johnson
Then the 1960s teams of those not on the 1950s teams:
Cournoyer, Laperierre, Savard, Worsley, Vachon, Lemaire.
I'd say J-C Tremblay is the most notable omission from the Hall these days, so he isn't in.
So that leaves Provost, Backstrom, Rousseau and Jean-Guy Talbot as players who won a lot of Cups with Montreal who were good players but not recognized as great and probably aren't making the HHOFer poorer by not being in there.
There has to be that cut off somewhere. With the Islanders dynasty I guess Gillies is that cut off that gets in under the radar while Goring and Tonelli don't. Kevin Lowe should have been on the outside with Edmonton but he isn't. Andy Moog is as well. I am thinking when the Pens or the Hawks teams are eligible for the Hall that the likes of Crosby, Malkin, Fleury and Letang get in, but Phil Kessel doesn't. Ditto the Hawks, Toews, Kane, Hossa (already in), Keith, but not Patrick Sharp or Corey Crawford or even Brad Richards who was on the last Cup. Kucherov, Stamkos, Hedman and Vasi will all get in from the Tampa teams. I could see Point having the type of career that gets him in too. Or maybe he doesn't. Bottom line is someone has to be the cut off guy. For better or worse that just might be Provost. The 9 Cups is impressive, as is his two-way play, but Talbot has 7, Backstrom has 6 and Rousseau has 4.
You might argue Pete Mahovlich is the Hab forward possibly most deserving to get in that isn't in yet although he wasn't with Provost.