The Pierre Turgeon Trade

[JianYang]

Everything started crumbling the moment Corey fired Savard and Demers.

Terrible decisions followed, one after the other.

It had already started before that.

 

[Halakitlikethat]

Habs just loved trading their captains at the time

 

[JianYang]

There seems to be a bit of revisionist history with turgeon's tenure here.

I don't think anyone else in this thread has mentioned that turgeon was being boo'd by the fans everytime he touched the puck towards the end. It had really become an awkward situation, and one where a change of scenery was needed.

The return was not up to par obviously, but let's not forget that the fans had already turned on turgeon too.

 

[JianYang]

I absolutely, viscerally hated that trade. It wade no sense then and it makes no sense now.

Since Turgeon's one full season in 1995-96 not a single player has been close to getting 96 points here. Corson was bad in his return here but Baron was an absolute disaster. Zero offence AND zero defense.

The thinking at the time was that Turgeon was "soft" and the one thing real hockey fans hated more than "soft" players back then were soft frenchy players. So they moved Damphousse from winger to center and thought Koivu would be a superstar. Then they traded Damphousse for leftovers two years later and then Koivu got hurt.

Probably my most hated trade ever. Even the Roy trade was made more sense that this. They felt that bridges were burnt and they got a highly talented younger goalie plus two talented young forwards. In contrast they traded their most talented and offensive skater for an 30 year-old slow 2nd-3rd line winger and the slowest D in the league.

Nobody came close to 96 points since but kovalev's 84 point season was more impressive. Kovalev was 11th in scoring with 84 points while turgeon was somewhere around 20th when he scored 96.

 

[the valiant effort]

Corson led the league with 14 PP goals in 1997-1998.

L.O.L.

 

[Tyson]

Why

I didn't understand your post whatsoever

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

That trade was the beginning of 25+ years of Da Grind

 

[salbutera]

That trade was the beginning of 25+ years of Da Grind

“Da Grind” started when Jacques Lemaire was named coach in 1983 and immediately implemented his play possum neutral zone trap

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

God awful trade and underscores what was wrong with the franchise for so long.

Want to trade Turgeon? Okay. But you better get picks/prospects back. Instead we get Shane Corson.

I mean, there's no excuse for this.

 

[Tyson]

God awful trade and underscores what was wrong with the franchise for so long.

Want to trade Turgeon? Okay. But you better get picks/prospects back. Instead we get Shane Corson.

I mean, there's no excuse for this.

And we gave away a prospect. At the time Rory Fitzpatrick was highly coveted.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Habs were betting Koivu would be better. Bad bet.

It's okay to make that bet but you can't just give away an asset like this.

I mean this is Courtnall for Kordic bad.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

And we gave away a prospect. At the time Rory Fitzpatrick was highly coveted.

Good call out. Conroy turned out to be a decent player.

 

[Thierry]

There seems to be a bit of revisionist history with turgeon's tenure here.

I don't think anyone else in this thread has mentioned that turgeon was being boo'd by the fans everytime he touched the puck towards the end. It had really become an awkward situation, and one where a change of scenery was needed.

The return was not up to par obviously, but let's not forget that the fans had already turned on turgeon too.

I know Habs fans can be hard on their players, but I'm very surprised by that. Is it only because he's a French Canadian? Because I know they also did it to Brisebois but at the time, if I'm not mistaken, Brisebois was paid like a 1st pairing D-man which he wasn't and was a liability defensively. Always been a fan of his shoot-pass on the powerplay, though.

 

[SOLR]

I didn't understand your post whatsoever

If the Blues had taken Rivet instead of Fitz in the Turgeon trade, no Maxpac.

 

[Tyson]

If the Blues had taken Rivet instead of Fitz in the Turgeon trade, no Maxpac.

Damn that's right...wow

Good call out. Conroy turned out to be a decent player.

Was Conroy part of that trade too? If so, WTF

 

[Tyson]

I know Habs fans can be hard on their players, but I'm very surprised by that. Is it only because he's a French Canadian? Because I know they also did it to Brisebois but at the time, if I'm not mistaken, Brisebois was paid like a 1st pairing D-man which he wasn't and was a liability defensively. Always been a fan of his shoot-pass on the powerplay, though.

Habs have always been notorious for playing players out of position. Brisebois was a 2nd pairing D played like a first pair D. He never deserved the boos. I met him once, super polite, super respectful.

 

[Scriptor]

Habs have always been notorious for playing players out of position. Brisebois was a 2nd pairing D played like a first pair D. He never deserved the boos. I met him once, super polite, super respectful.

Loves car racing, I hear...

 

[Nedved]

we need 2023 season to start

 

[HuGort]

That trade was the beginning of 25+ years of Da Grind

Roy trade was

 

[Scriptor]

Rejean Houle was the GM. He's by all accounts a nice guy. But he had no business sense and couldn't make good deals. He traded Patrick Roy for Rucinksy, Kovalenko, and Thibault...

That's the main reason for the bad trade. But, there was also the fact that Turgeon was put at 3c behind Saku Koivu and Vinny Damphousse. It hurt his ego, just as Patrick Roy's ego was hurt by Mario Tremblay (the coach). Basically neither coach nor the GM knew how to handle superstar egos.

The second factor was that, actually at that time, we had to sell many players. There wasn't a cap and we weren't one of the teams that could spend a lot like the Rangers, Dallas Stars, Red Wings, etc... (if memory serves me correctly, I was in high school then)...

You can't remember if you were in high school then?

 

[Spearmint Rhino]

Roy trade was

That was more a guy wanting out, Turgeon was specifically swapping talent for beef

 

[Boris Le Tigre]

Habs were wrong that Pierre’s scoring would decline.

Habs were not wrong that you are not winning with Pierre as one of your top guys.

Hockey being a game of matchups as it is. Him being a known commodity by that time in his career.

Still a bad trade. No understanding of or concern for relative value, apparently.

 

[themilosh]

If memory serves me correctly, markov wasn't even using an agent.. can you imagine getting dicked around like he did for a 1 year contract?

 

[dcyhabs]

There seems to be a bit of revisionist history with turgeon's tenure here.

I don't think anyone else in this thread has mentioned that turgeon was being boo'd by the fans everytime he touched the puck towards the end. It had really become an awkward situation, and one where a change of scenery was needed.

The return was not up to par obviously, but let's not forget that the fans had already turned on turgeon too.

Reason number 236 why the habs haven't had a cup since '93. Booing a guy who was a little entitled and less valuable than Damphousse but who put up 96 points. So he was only the second best player on the team and he didn't fight, only really dumb fans would boo a player like that.

 

[JianYang]

Corson led the league with 14 PP goals in 1997-1998.

L.O.L.

Corson played with recchi and koivu that year and it was his last season with that level of production. It was a good mix. Recchi lead the Habs with 0.90 points per game, but corson was right behind him at 0.89. Koivu was around 0.82.

The thing I remember about corson on the PP was that he would keep shifting multiple times during the same sequence between screening the goalie, and becoming a down low passing option depending on where the puck was.