Pierre Mondou

[voyageur]

Pierre Mondou had a good career, won the Stanley Cup 3 times, had a very nice statline

Career
GP
548
G
194
A
262
PTS
456
+/-
213
GWG
25

I remember him as one of the better Canadiens players of the 1980s. I know he was injured in the eye by Ulf Samuelsson, but if you watch his last career goal, and some of the highlights of him in the Nordiques-Canadiens series of 1985, he still had some hand eye cordination and some skill.

So I am wondering if there is another reason he retired at 29? I know the Canadiens had a tendency to push their stars out early.

 

[ForsbergForever]

The eye injury is indeed the reason for his early retirement.

 

[MS]

The eye injury is indeed the reason for his early retirement.

It is, but I think the popular perception is that the injury happened instantly ending his career and that Mondou never played again.

In fact, he came back for Montreal's last 2 regular season games plus most of the playoff series with Quebec, and scored 3-1-4 +5 in those 7 games. So it seems like he *could* have continued playing with diminished sight but chose not to and that's what the OP is asking about.

 

[Habsfan18]

This is from a June issue of The Gazette:

Sounds like it really came down to him not being satisfied with his vision since the injury. As mentioned, he did play a few additional games after it occurred.

 

[MS]

This is from a June issue of The Gazette:

View attachment 464109

Sounds like it really came down to him not being satisfied with his vision since the injury. As mentioned, he did play a few additional games after it occurred.

I feel that players make a lot different decisions in 2021 when they're staring at a 5 year/$25 million UFA deal than they did in 1985 when the average salary was $150k. Think of Manny Malhotra soldiering on for years when completely blind in one eye.

 

[barbu]

He wasn't pushed out. He might even have been in the middle of his best season when the injury happened.

Edit: Well best - rose tinted glasses since I started watching hockey that season. One of his good seasons then.

 

[Davenport]

Whenever I think of Pierre Mondou, I recall the surgery he performed on Peter Stastny during the first game of the first round series between Montreal and Quebec in 1981-82.

 

[reckoning]

Mondou had very good chemistry with Mats Naslund. It's a shame his career ended early; he would have been a key player on those mid-to-late-80s Hab teams.