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Why did Montreal Trade Chelios?

GMR

GMR

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Jul 27, 2013
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I've always been curious about this trade. Why trade a 28 year old #1 defenseman, for a 29 year old #1 centerman? I know Chelios got in some trouble legally that year, but it seems odd to trade a workhorse who logged so much icetime. On top of that, Montreal threw in a second round pick to Chicago.

Were they just really high on Desjardins and Schneider and figured Chelios was expendable? Or did they think he was past his prime?
 
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Obviously a horrible move in hindsight, but the thinking at the time was that the Habs were acquiring a french superstar of the past decade that needed a change of scenary.

Sometimes in Montreal, the thought of a hometown boy trumps anything, even if the move doesn’t make much sense unfortunately.

But yes, the development and potential of Desjardins and Schneider likely played a part in it as well.

Look at what Montreal was allegedly offering for Vincent Lecavalier back in 2009. Tells you all you need to know about the thought of a local star.
 
GMR said:
I've always been curious about this trade. Why trade a 28 year old #1 defenseman, for a 29 year old #1 centerman? I know Chelios got in some trouble legally that year, but it seems odd to trade a workhorse who logged so much icetime. On top of that, Montreal threw in a second round pick to Chicago.

Were they just really high on Desjardins and Schneider and figured Chelios was expendable? Or did they think he was past his prime?
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Just legally is an understatement.
 
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there was a big wave of young dmen coming up, the best of whom turned out to be desjardins and schneider (and sylvain lefebvre). but there was also odelein, sean hill getting ready to come out of college after a decorated ncaa career, and brisebois had just been drafted. jj daigneault was still young and promising, as was gerald diduck. but i think the guy they thought would step up and become a star was petr svoboda, who was former high pick with all the tools coming off a breakthrough regular season and finals run.

for more embarrassment of riches context, in back to back years, the habs gave the canucks lumme and diduck, who were our two best dmen of the 90s, for a 2nd and 4th round pick.

another factor was probably the french factor. cheli and carbonneau shared the captaincy. with his indiscretions on top of not speaking french, it was probably easy for savard, a former classy french habs captain himself, to trade chelios for the other savard.

remember also that carbonneau himself would be on thin ice with the habs when he got a dui, and later, even after rebounding to captain the team to another cup, was given away for a scrub after he flipped off a reporter.
 
At the time, Hab fans were ecstatic about the deal. Serge Savard has said that everywhere he went that summer, someone would want to pat him on the back or shake his hand, telling him what a great trade it was.

After the loss to Boston in the playoffs that season, many in the media were quick to blame it on the teams lack of offense. Nobody was able to step up scoring-wise after Richer was injured in that series, and the future didn't look good with Naslund headed back to Sweden.

I don't know if pressure from the fans and media played a role in the trade, or if it was that Chelios had wore out his welcome with Montreal.

I still remember the story about the trade on front page of the sports section in the newspaper the next day. Under a picture of Savard, there was a quote saying "It's a dream come true." Under the picture of Chelios was a quote saying "It sucks."
 
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Summary of this trade by The Hockey Writers a few months ago:
https://thehockeywriters.com/chris-chelios-trade-revisited/

I remember this happening when I was 14, and even then I thought it was a bad trade for Montreal. Even though Savard had just put up 102 points in 80 games in 1989-90 (RS + playoffs), I certainly had the feeling by 1990 that he was becoming "yesterday's man". He obviously butted heads with Keenan, and with Roenick coming on and Keenan's obsessive need to be a baws in the dressing room, you can understand the trade from Chicago's perspective.

But Montreal's? In 1987, 1988, and 1989, they'd been 1st in goals-against in the League (in 1990 they 'fell' to 2nd). Their whole team was built around defence and goaltending, and in retrospect they shouldn't have tried to change that. It's one of those things where the '89 Finals' loss to a deeper group of Calgary forwards and the 1990 lack of playoff scoring caused management to jump the gun prematurely to try to get a bit more scoring. But in doing so they cut off an arm to acquire a finger.

The weird thing is, it was when they finally got a deeper pool of forwards (1992-93) that they won the Cup. Their team defence that year was the worst it was anytime between 1984 and 1993... and yet they won the Stanley Cup. But they didn't win because of Savard, who didn't play in the Finals.
 
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I think it's as simple as having a French scoring star come home to La Belle Province. As has been said above, Montreal wanted Lecavalier. And recently, Drouin is another example of this.

It's cool to have a regional identity like the Habs, but so far it seems like these trades have hurt us more than they've helped us.
 
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Interesting move for sure. Chelios was their co-captain too so a ? move all around. Savard regressed after leaving Chicago while Chelios was among the great defenseman of the 90's with Chicago.
 
MXD said:
Well...that's a very good reason.
That doesn't explain why everyone wants to chime in with a wrong answer.

I mean, there are ways to not commit libel towards, say, U2, without calling them a jazz band either.
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haha, well maybe we should put a disclaimer under all the posts saying "these are only reasons that made it easier for serge savard to trade chelios. the real reason is... you know..."
 
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Moose Head said:
Apparantly Serge Savard had a doctors report that said Chelios's knees wouldn't last another 5 years, lol
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This one is reason #2. The trade looks hilarious in hindsight, because Savard didn't have any great seasons left, and Chelios would have about 10.
 
Eisen said:
Is it libel when he got a criminal complaint?
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Johnny Engine said:
If you want to present a solid record of that complaint without speculating further, you’d be well within bounds.
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Chelios was arrested for what I'd call an indiscretion (and resisted his arrest) the day before he got traded, but seriously, you don't think this arrest has anything to do with the trade... right? I mean... the trade might already have been concluded BEFORE that incident happened.
 
Eisen said:
Is it libel when he got a criminal complaint?
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If someone files a criminal complaint maliciously, "made it up", then yes, that would be civil libel along with a couple of other crimes that fall under criminal statutes. Perjury, wasting police time etc. Unfortunately something that does occur though fortunately very rarely. Often used as a threat, blackmail/extortion in targeting sports or entertainment personalities, politicians, the wealthy. A lot of it never making the press of course, paid off. Very nasty, dirty business. People have a tendency to believe & remember that so & so was charged with whatever & if charged must therefore be guilty even if & when the charges are dismissed or he/she proven innocent. Even just the accusation alone of whatever malfeasance that turns out to be completely baseless, a hit to the reputation, cause for civil suit in the millions, publishers being sued, newspapers etc as weve seen countless times over the years, decades. Pretty ugly stuff & hockey players not immune. Bearing false witness against another human being, really doesnt get any lower than that. Despicable.
 
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Killion said:
If someone files a criminal complaint maliciously, "made it up", then yes, that would be civil libel along with a couple of other crimes that fall under criminal statutes. Perjury, wasting police time etc. Unfortunately something that does occur though fortunately very rarely. Often used as a threat, blackmail/extortion in targeting sports or entertainment personalities, politicians, the wealthy. A lot of it never making the press of course, paid off. Very nasty, dirty business. People have a tendency to believe & remember that so & so was charged with whatever & if charged must therefore be guilty even if & when the charges are dismissed or he/she proven innocent. Even just the accusation alone of whatever malfeasance that turns out to be completely baseless, a hit to the reputation, cause for civil suit in the millions, publishers being sued, newspapers etc as weve seen countless times over the years, decades. Pretty ugly stuff & hockey players not immune. Bearing false witness against another human being, really doesnt get any lower than that. Despicable.
Click to expand...

And the worst part of all of that is it's very likely that the scumbags who do this stuff pee away all the money they get anyway and then move on to the next scam.
 
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there are two other rumours, both more serious than the one that got in the news. no idea about veracity but i’m guessing one of those are what mxd’s referring to.

ppl are free to google on their own (there’s a reddit thread that discusses it, for instance). but to save you time, one is in the neighbourhood of the jeff brown/mathieu schneider rumours, the other is on the gilmour to dan quinn/mario spectrum.
 
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Eisen said:
Is it libel when he got a criminal complaint?
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I'm not sure if people here are referencing different incidents, but Chelios describes the incident in detail in his own autobiography.
 
Because he may have slept or flirted with Ronald Corey's wife.

When a star defenseman gets traded by the Habs , the primary reason has never anything to do with hockey. Everyone should know this by now.
 
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