The Panther
Registered User
(Found a short-thread about him from 13 years ago, but not much there.)
I am interested to know more about Marc Tardif, who played for the Montreal Jr. Canadiens alongside Rejean Houle and Gilbert Perreault. I find the French-Canadian stars centered around the 1970s -- esp. those whose greatest performances were not in the NHL -- very interesting. For example, we can always speculate about how well they'd have done if their salad years were in the big league.
Tardif is a bit different from others in this regard, because he did play in the NHL, both early in his pro-career (c.1970 to 1973) and again after the WHA folded (1979 to 1983), which comes to 517 games (and 62 in the playoffs) and is actually more than he played in the WHA. Yet he's mainly remembered as a WHA superstar, which is understandable when we see his numbers for the Nordiques then:
Marc Tardif Stats | Hockey-Reference.com
Now, obviously his 148 and 154-point seasons are not numbers that he could have achieved in the NHL, but his actual NHL stats are pretty good, especially considering his peak years were in between his two NHL stints. He was on board for the Habs' 1971 Cup run, along with Jean Beliveau. When Bowman took over the next year, Tardif scored 31 goals (fifth on the club, and more than Guy Lafleur), so that's pretty good. His stats are similar the following season (1972-73), and at least statistically he appears to have outperformed Lafleur in the playoffs, with six goals in fourteen games.
This is the point at which he jumps the WHA -- I assume for money? He went straight to the ill-fated L.A. Sharks, a team that started five goaltenders and had a bunch of players I've never heard of. Tardif scored 40 goals to lead the team. Still, was the money that good that he wanted to leave the Cup-champion Habs and his (presumably) childhood team? I guess so...
In 1974, the Sharks moved to Detroit to become the Michigan Stags. Tardif's numbers seem to have been down a bit for 23 games based in Michigan, but then he was traded to Quebec in Dec.1974. It would be an understatement to say this appears to have invigorated him. His stats the next three-and-2/3 seasons as a Nordique: 274GP -- 223G + 260A = 483PTS
So, for nearly four years he averaged 140 points per season, when healthy. The final WHA season in Quebec (under Jacques Demers), 1978-79, he was a little under that pace, but still huge, with 96 points in 74 games, but he was supplanted by the younger Real Cloutier as the Nords' leading scorer.
So, Tardif was 30 years old by the time the Nords made it into the NHL, and in 1979-80 he put up 68 points in just 58 games (33 goals), again second in team scoring to Cloutier. The second NHL season in Quebec saw Demers gone and Michel Bergeron in, along with the arrival of Peter and Anton Stastny. I wonder if this didn't limit Tardif's ice-time/PP-time a bit, as he scored just 54 points in 63 games (although, among skaters, he was by now the 2nd-oldest guy on the club). He appears to have bounced back a bit in 1981-82 (and on Hockey Ref. he's now listed as a center...?), with 39 goals. Goals-wise, he's still keeping pace with, say, Michel Goulet at this point. By 1982-83, with Goulet emerging as a star and Anton Stastny at left-wing, Tardif appears to have been on the third line. Now age 33, he still put up 21 goals and 52 points, but then promptly retired.
For those who saw him play, how good was he? I wouldn't want to read too much into the WHA peak-era stats, but the guy did have the highest-scoring season in WHA history, and a few 30-40 goals seasons in the NHL coming sort-of before and after his peak. He seemingly wasn't one of these small guys, either (like Cloutier or Ftorek), as he's listed at 6-feet, 195 pounds. Clearly, in the right situation he could have been an NHL star of the 1970s.
Then, why did he leave the Habs right after winning a cup? I'm guessing (not sure) he played on a line with Lafleur...? If he's stuck around for another year or two, he'd have been there when Lafleur emerged as a superstar. I can understand French-Canadian guys in (say) Atlanta wanting to leave to play in Quebec, but Tardif left the Canadiens to play for a shaky franchise in California (did he even speak English?).
There is the suggestion from his stats that he was a bit of a one-way player (again, I'm not sure, just speculating) and I wonder if maybe the transition to "Bowman-style" hockey was hard on him.
Any info./memories of Tardif, please share here!
I am interested to know more about Marc Tardif, who played for the Montreal Jr. Canadiens alongside Rejean Houle and Gilbert Perreault. I find the French-Canadian stars centered around the 1970s -- esp. those whose greatest performances were not in the NHL -- very interesting. For example, we can always speculate about how well they'd have done if their salad years were in the big league.
Tardif is a bit different from others in this regard, because he did play in the NHL, both early in his pro-career (c.1970 to 1973) and again after the WHA folded (1979 to 1983), which comes to 517 games (and 62 in the playoffs) and is actually more than he played in the WHA. Yet he's mainly remembered as a WHA superstar, which is understandable when we see his numbers for the Nordiques then:
Marc Tardif Stats | Hockey-Reference.com
Now, obviously his 148 and 154-point seasons are not numbers that he could have achieved in the NHL, but his actual NHL stats are pretty good, especially considering his peak years were in between his two NHL stints. He was on board for the Habs' 1971 Cup run, along with Jean Beliveau. When Bowman took over the next year, Tardif scored 31 goals (fifth on the club, and more than Guy Lafleur), so that's pretty good. His stats are similar the following season (1972-73), and at least statistically he appears to have outperformed Lafleur in the playoffs, with six goals in fourteen games.
This is the point at which he jumps the WHA -- I assume for money? He went straight to the ill-fated L.A. Sharks, a team that started five goaltenders and had a bunch of players I've never heard of. Tardif scored 40 goals to lead the team. Still, was the money that good that he wanted to leave the Cup-champion Habs and his (presumably) childhood team? I guess so...
In 1974, the Sharks moved to Detroit to become the Michigan Stags. Tardif's numbers seem to have been down a bit for 23 games based in Michigan, but then he was traded to Quebec in Dec.1974. It would be an understatement to say this appears to have invigorated him. His stats the next three-and-2/3 seasons as a Nordique: 274GP -- 223G + 260A = 483PTS
So, for nearly four years he averaged 140 points per season, when healthy. The final WHA season in Quebec (under Jacques Demers), 1978-79, he was a little under that pace, but still huge, with 96 points in 74 games, but he was supplanted by the younger Real Cloutier as the Nords' leading scorer.
So, Tardif was 30 years old by the time the Nords made it into the NHL, and in 1979-80 he put up 68 points in just 58 games (33 goals), again second in team scoring to Cloutier. The second NHL season in Quebec saw Demers gone and Michel Bergeron in, along with the arrival of Peter and Anton Stastny. I wonder if this didn't limit Tardif's ice-time/PP-time a bit, as he scored just 54 points in 63 games (although, among skaters, he was by now the 2nd-oldest guy on the club). He appears to have bounced back a bit in 1981-82 (and on Hockey Ref. he's now listed as a center...?), with 39 goals. Goals-wise, he's still keeping pace with, say, Michel Goulet at this point. By 1982-83, with Goulet emerging as a star and Anton Stastny at left-wing, Tardif appears to have been on the third line. Now age 33, he still put up 21 goals and 52 points, but then promptly retired.
For those who saw him play, how good was he? I wouldn't want to read too much into the WHA peak-era stats, but the guy did have the highest-scoring season in WHA history, and a few 30-40 goals seasons in the NHL coming sort-of before and after his peak. He seemingly wasn't one of these small guys, either (like Cloutier or Ftorek), as he's listed at 6-feet, 195 pounds. Clearly, in the right situation he could have been an NHL star of the 1970s.
Then, why did he leave the Habs right after winning a cup? I'm guessing (not sure) he played on a line with Lafleur...? If he's stuck around for another year or two, he'd have been there when Lafleur emerged as a superstar. I can understand French-Canadian guys in (say) Atlanta wanting to leave to play in Quebec, but Tardif left the Canadiens to play for a shaky franchise in California (did he even speak English?).
There is the suggestion from his stats that he was a bit of a one-way player (again, I'm not sure, just speculating) and I wonder if maybe the transition to "Bowman-style" hockey was hard on him.
Any info./memories of Tardif, please share here!
