Montreal Canadiens: Thanking the Blue Jackets for Charles Hudon
By Omar L
From looking at how well Charles Hudon has been ahead of the regular season, it would be fitting to look into how he became part of the Montreal Canadiens.
So unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you probably know that Charles Hudon has been taking massive leaps. I mean you could also not be a fan of the team but that’s another story. The fact that the Montreal Canadiens were able to draft such skill in the 5th round is pretty incredible. We’ll have to thank for scouting that.
Was it just the scouting though? Obviously hitting outside of the first round takes luck as much as it does great insight. There is one more factor of this who the Habs should thank, and that’s the Columbus Blue Jackets.
If you make all the connections, Hudon being on the team dates back to 2002, 10 years before he was originally drafted.
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10 Years Ago…
The 2001-2002 NHL season finished with the Detroit Red Wings winning the Stanley Cup. Chicago had a decent year, but it didn’t last as long as they wanted. They were eliminated in the first round by the St. Louis Blues in five games.
Our story begins at the draft that year in the fifth round. The Blackhawks selected James Wisniewski 156th overall. It took a while for the defenceman to make his NHL debut with the teams after spending two years in the minors.
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He was called up during 2005-2006 season but had his season cut short after suffering from an ACL injury. Wisniewski would play another three seasons with the Blackhawks before being traded to the Anaheim Ducks along with Petri Kontiola for Samuel Pahlsson and Logan Stephenson. The moving doesn’t stop there, as he would be moved to the New York Islanders and then to our Montreal Canadiens.
Now we get into the interesting part of the story. He played well for the Habs putting up seven goals and 23 assists in 43 games. The then 27-year-old would need a new contract at the end of the season, but the Habs weren’t interested in keeping him. Therefore, his rights were traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets for a conditional 7th round pick at that year’s draft.
The condition was that if the Blue Jackets signed Wisnewski, the puck would become a 5th rounder. As fate would have it, Columbus signed him to a six-year $33 million contract.
You probably know the rest of this story. The Montreal Canadiens would use that pick to select Charles Hudon 122nd overall in the 5th round, and now he’s almost in the NHL. Efforts from Chicago and Columbus got us one of the steals of that draft. Just goes to show that every trade has the potential of becoming something important. Even if it looks insignificant at first.
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Are you happy that the Blue Jackets signed Wisniewski? Are you looking forward to seeing Hudon? Let us know your thoughts in the comments?
Trade information from nhltradetracker.com while player contracts from Capfriendly.com