The Pierre Turgeon Trade

[ZUKI]

Only three years separated Turgeon and Corson.

The reason behind the trade was pretty simple. The Canadiens had three top line centres in Turgeon, Damphousse and Koivu and the club needed to get tougher and more difficult to play against.

They traded from an area of strength (centres) to address an area of weakness (toughness.)

Corson and Baron were both hard nosed physical players so the idea was to slot in Koivu and Damphousse as the top two centres and add a rough and tumble top six forward in Corson and some major physicality to the blue line with Baron.

i don’t know what to say about your opinion; don’t you realize that you are talking about a slow 45 pts player nearly at the end of his career, thanks to his heavy nightlife , + a fighter in a trade for player who just got a 96 points season

You don’t trade those rare players , you trade someone else as if there weren’t other solutions to get that 3rd liner bum

 

[DailyKaizen]

Habs were betting Koivu would be better. Bad bet.

Koivu was great, never the same after that horrendous injury that saw hobble is way to the bench, poor guy. He was leading the league in points at various times that season…he would never ever be able to be as effective as he used to be because of that specific injury that forced him to always play with a knee brace it memory serves me.

 

[ZUKI]

Koivu was great, never the same after that horrendous injury that saw hobble is way to the bench, poor guy. He was leading the league in points at various times that season…he would never ever be able to be as effective as he used to be because of that specific injury that forced him to always play with a knee brace it memory serves me.

Koivu was beginning the seasons very strong, but wasn't able to maintain his production for more than few months ( i remember how Koivu and Savage were in fire in October ) This infamous injury has been a reason to explain his lack of production for his entire career.. Lot of peoples believe that he wasn't the same after. Me not. He was a one hit wonder for just few months.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

Koivu was beginning the seasons very strong, but wasn't able to maintain his production for more than few months ( i remember how Koivu and Savage were in fire in October ) This infamous injury has been a reason to explain his lack of production for his entire career.. Lot of peoples believe that he wasn't the same after. Me not. He was a one hit wonder for just few months.

He was faster before his first unjury, no doubt. He had 3 knee injuries and 2 operations. At the end the nerve was screwed to the bone. He had a shoulder injury too. And then the cancer and he had treatments thru the seasons after. Beside his lack of speed because of his injury, Koivu didn't have a powerfull shot outside 15 feet from the net. Most of his goals were 5 feet from the net. He had a precise shot.

But to return to Turgeon, that was an HUGE mistake. A gm with brain doesn't trade a 97 pts or 40 g center for a finished bum like Corson. I kindda get the idea of getting tougher for the PO time but man if you have to do it (that trade), get a real power forward and not F*** Corson, for god sake !
But the story doesn't end with Turgeon, Dampĥousse was traded few years later for a ridiculous 2nd round pick or something like that.

 

[ZUKI]

Turgeon is a player that looks better on paper than what he was and was not regarded as a franchise player, but more of an imposter. I think he received more hate than what he deserved and was still a very good player but Damphousse was better and Koivu was ready to ascend. It was poor value to target Corson and the trade was definitely dumb but it was very common and accepted knowledge that Koivu was going to push one of Damphousse or Turgeon out with Turgeon being the overwhelming favourite to go.

Koivu proved that he was the best of the three by leading the league in scoring through the first 30+ games of the season before suffering the knee injury that forever changed his career. For those that were too young to fully remember and understand the height of the Koivu hype before he even came over and the euphoria and excitement that he brought to begin the 96-97 season it will be hard to explain the Turgeon situation when they go back and look at the numbers. Koivu had clearly passed Turgeon and the Habs wanted to move Turgeon out before his value dipped due to playing 3C, unfortunately they hastily traded Turgeon without getting the value that they should have.

30 games . He has dominated for 30 games and you pretend he was better than both Turgeon and Damphousse

Turgeon , the imposter ;

515 G, 812 p for 1327 points / 1294 games play, more than a PPG for all his career
Best season ; 58 g , 74 p for 134 points

Koivu, the one who has proved to be the better during 30 games ;

Oh wait ! Saku once got a 22 goals 75 points season. It was 10 years after his injury

 

[FerrisRox]

i don’t know what to say about your opinion; don’t you realize that you are talking about a slow 45 pts player nearly at the end of his career, thanks to his heavy nightlife , + a fighter in a trade for player who just got a 96 points season

You don’t trade those rare players , you trade someone else as if there weren’t other solutions to get that 3rd liner bum

It's not my opinion, it's what happened.

And if you want to pretend that Shayne Corson was a "slow 45 point player nearly at the end of his career" you certainly can, but don't expect anyone to take you seriously.

The reality is Corson played for team Canada at the 1998 Olympics as a member of the Montreal Canadiens and he played seven more season in the NHL.

Calling Murray Baron "a fighter" is equally clueless.

 

[Catanddogguitarrr]

It's crazy to think that we had Turgeon/Damphousse/Koivu/Conroy as our centers at the same time.

Like that's absolutely bonkers.

It's crazy that you have that center line and you project to find who is the better center and trade all the other ones to only have one and only ome. I hope the same thing will not happen with Suzuki. I have to say yes, a team can have more than one good center. 3 or 4 good ones are no luxury.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

30 games . He has dominated for 30 games and you pretend he was better than both Turgeon and Damphousse

Turgeon , the imposter ;

515 G, 812 p for 1327 points / 1294 games play, more than a PPG for all his career
Best season ; 58 g , 74 p for 134 points

Koivu, the one who has proved to be the better during 30 games ;

Oh wait ! Saku once got a 22 goals 75 points season. It was 10 years after his injury

Clearly you were not around to see it judging by your typical ignorance on the topic.

 

[JianYang]

Koivu was beginning the seasons very strong, but wasn't able to maintain his production for more than few months ( i remember how Koivu and Savage were in fire in October ) This infamous injury has been a reason to explain his lack of production for his entire career.. Lot of peoples believe that he wasn't the same after. Me not. He was a one hit wonder for just few months.

It's hard to attribute everything to one injury. The Shantz knee on knee was the most glaring, but there was also the cancer, and numerous other injuries especially early in his career.

But despite that he had one of his most productive seasons on a line with an older donald audette.

You'd be hard pressed to find many examples of him playing with bonafide premier talents in the nhl. Off the top of my head, all I can come up with is recchi for a brief time in the late 90s, and the odd shift with Alex Kovalev.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

It had already started before that.

The trade for Reechi started the ball rolling.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

He was also grossly overrated. This kind of dmen has always been overrated here for as long as i can remember. The 15 points not so great defensive guy is the kind of dmen we should avoid like the plague. Barron was a black hole offensively in all 3 zones and he was not that physical. He was punching bag more than anything else.

At that point of his career Lyle Odelein was still far superior to Barron in every facets of the game and on top of that was a more physical player and we traded Odelein a few weeks before the Tuegron trade for a end of career Richer. We went from Turgeon (27) and Odelein (28) to Corson (30), Richer (30) and Barron (29). I don't even know where to begin to explain how bad it was. This get overlooked way to much because of the Roy trade.

Odelein had too many off the ice troubles.

Corson and him were also drinking buddies, so maybe they traded him because they already had their sights on getting Corson back and didn't want the partying duo to get reacquainted.

Ran into Tremblay in Calgary at a coffee shop when he was an assistant with the Wild, wanted to slam his head into the table so badly

He's the ex-habs player I hate the most.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Completely missing out on elite young Soviet talent (Bure, Mogilny, Fedorov etc.) as the Berlin Wall crumbled crushed the org for a generation

Yeah, except they got Markov in 98.

That's not what killed the Habs. 90% of the league also missed out on those players, yet many were succesful.

It wasn't the Berlin wall crumbling that made them miss out on Forsberg either.

The bad trades is what killed them.

Another failed Salbutera narrative

Houle's regime screwed up the two most important trades that they made.

I understand that Roy only had one year left on his deal, so it was a tricky one to try and get value, but they further handcuffed themselves by trying to make the deal as quick as possible. It almost felt like a panic move.

Turgeon also had run his course with this club and had to be dealt. However, stl preyed and montreal once again gets the short end.

To be fair though, Houle had a couple good moments. Drafting of Markov, Ribeiro, Ryder, and the trade sending thibault and Manson out in exchange for Hackett and weinrich.

He also got Souray in a trade.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Houle would have literally had nothing to do with any of those.

In addition to the Hackett trade, I felt the Malakhov for Souray trade was good, or at least it turned out good. I have no clue how well Souray was regarded as a prospect at the time.

Souray was a good prospect. Was good value on trade day.

 

[FerrisRox]

Completely missing out on elite young Soviet talent (Bure, Mogilny, Fedorov etc.) as the Berlin Wall crumbled crushed the org for a generation

One of the top players of that era, and arguably the best Russian blueiner, was Andrei Markov.

What are you talking about?

 

[salbutera]

One of the top players of that era, and arguably the best Russian blueiner, was Andrei Markov.

What are you talking about?

Markov was drafted 8-years after fall of Berlin Wall & Soviet Union

That was the post Soviet era, drafted by a different management team (Houle) and joined Habs 10+ years after fall of wall

By the time Markov played his first NHL game the likes of Larionov, Mogilny, Fedorov, Bure etc had been playing in the NHL 10+ years

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Right on. Nolan was physical 50 goal scorer. He'd been right fit. Things been much different last 25 years if we had made that trade.

Should've kept Leclair and Desjardins instead.

 

[HuGort]

Should've kept Leclair and Desjardins instead.

Doubt Leclair takes off without legion of doom

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Doubt Leclair takes off without legion of doom

He would've been fine with a passer like Koivu.

 

[JianYang]

Yeah, except they got Markov in 98.

That's not what killed the Habs. 90% of the league also missed out on those players, yet many were succesful.

It wasn't the Berlin wall crumbling that made them miss out on Forsberg either.

The bad trades is what killed them.

Another failed Salbutera narrative



He also got Souray in a trade.

Yeah, the souray one turned out well for both teams. Malakhov was well liked by devils fans and he needed to get out of Montreal. He was in the right chair in NJ.

Souray's wrist put his career in danger early on but once he came back and started hitting the net, boy, what a weapon he was.

 

[Pickles]

Ya I remember now it was a grit based decision and Turgeon was seen as soft by the fans.still, they should've been able to secure better players.

The guy was super talented though. He's the last player that this franchise has had that came close to breaking 100 pts in a season. You surround a guy like that with grit not trade him away. Just horrible decision making during those dark times.

He would've been fine with a passer like Koivu.

Probably but he was so misused while he was in Montreal. They had him playing center at one point out of desperation either to get him scoring or to fill a need probably because of injuries.

 

[HuGort]

He would've been fine with a passer like Koivu.

I have my doubts. Leclair was here a long while. Never showed much until he got with Lindros

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

I have my doubts. Leclair was here a long while. Never showed much until he got with Lindros

He was 24 in his last full season with the Habs. Scored 19 goals each of his last two seasons playing mostly as a 3rd liner. He was also one of our best forwards in the 93 final.

Lindros has nothing to do with it. It was bad usage. Full stop.

 

[HuGort]

He was 24 in his last full season with the Habs. Scored 19 goals each of his last two seasons playing mostly as a 3rd liner. He was also one of our best forwards in the 93 final.

Lindros has nothing to do with it. It was bad usage. Full stop.

Rechhi wasn't the right fit in Montreal. He was point a game player at most. Character guy, alot of heart. But Quite a fall from his 50 goal 120 point seasons playing with Lindros or Lemieux. Then I think we traded Rechii back to Philly for Zubrus. Who was total flop. So, we ended with very little in deal

The drop in Recchia stats and explosion in LeClair, from 19 goals you say to 50 playing with Lindros. shows importance of a star player. If we get a star center how good will Caufield be? How good will Slaf be? It is pivotal.

 

[Andrei79]

The second half of the 90s were so rough for this Expos and Habs fan. To go from the high of 93 and 94 to...whatever the hell happened afterwards

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Rechhi wasn't the right fit in Montreal. He was point a game player at most. Character guy, alot of heart. But Quite a fall from his 50 goal 120 point seasons playing with Lindros or Lemieux. Then I think we traded Rechii back to Philly for Zubrus. Who was total flop. So, we ended with very little in deal

The drop in Recchia stats and explosion in LeClair, from 19 goals you say to 50 playing with Lindros. shows importance of a star player. If we get a star center how good will Caufield be? How good will Slaf be? It is pivotal.

Koivu was a very good playmaker.. With 20 TOI and Koivu as his center, he would've reached 35-40.