Team Canada’s Winter Olympic team is going to have some familiar faces with four former Montreal Canadiens named to the roster.
The buzz around this year’s Winter Olympics isn’t as loud as it usually is. For the first time in 20 years, the NHL will not be there which takes a big swipe at the, ‘best on best’ philosophy of the event. Because of all this, Canada – who is usually a favourite for the Olympics – is going in as an underdog. However, Montreal Canadiens fans, in particular, may have another reason to back the team as four former players will be joining the fight for the gold medal.
That’s one positive that’s come out of the NHL’s decision to pull out of this, others who may not have gotten an opportunity before, have one now. It’s been a long time since they all put on a Habs sweater and it’s interesting to see how they went from being NHL players in Montreal to Olympians.
Rene Bourque
The then 27-year-old was originally part of the Michael Cammalleri trade in 2012 and the Habs hoped that he could duplicate his scoring success with them. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out that way for Rene Bourque and after three years ended up on waivers and sent to the AHL.
The right-winger was eventually traded to the Anaheim Ducks and then the Columbus Blue Jackets which he remained on until the end of his six-year contract. Bourque was a free agent in the summer of 2016, and although he wasn’t given a contract at first, the Colorado Avalanche decided to provide him with a professional tryout and see what he could do at training camp.
Bourque played well enough to earn a one-year deal and seemed to find elements of his old self scoring eight goals in his first 19 games. However, he cooled off tremendously for the remainder of the season.
The Alberta native signed a one-year deal to play with Djurgardens IF the following summer and has had success there since. If that team name sounds familiar, it’s the same team as the Habs’ 2015 third round pick Lukas Vejdemos. Bourque has 13 goals and 8 assists in 32 games in Sweden, and hopefully, he continues that with Canada.
Maxim Lapierre
This path starts at the 2003 NHL Draft as the Montreal Canadiens selected Maxim Lapierre in the tail end of the second round. After two successful seasons with the Prince Edward Island Rocket of the QMJHL, Lapierre started would make his professional debut with the Hamilton Bulldogs in 2005 making his NHL debut with the Habs that same season.
After a few years bouncing up and down between the NHL and AHL, Lapierre made the team full-time out of training camp at the start of the 2008-09 season. After another five years with the Habs, the Quebec native was traded to the Anaheim Ducks and later to the Vancouver Canucks in the same season.
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Lapierre found a niche for himself with the Canucks and was given a two-year contract extension which he played through. He would spend time with two more teams in the St. Louis Blues and Pittsburgh Penguins before moving on to Europe in 2015.
Since then, Lapierre has played for two teams in MODO and now Lugano of the Swiss-A league. He will be going into the Olympics with 13 goals and 16 assists but hasn’t lost his aggressive agitating style to his game.
Christian Thomas
The Habs initially acquired the 25-year-old from the New York Rangers in exchange for Danny Kristo. Christian Thomas spent most of his in the organization playing for the Bulldogs and the eventual St. Johns Ice Caps.
However, the Toronto native had his fair share of call-ups playing 25 games for the Montreal Canadiens over the course of three seasons. He also scored his first NHL goal while wearing the Habs uniform in a game against the Edmonton Oilers.
Montreal traded Thomas the next season to the in exchange for prospect Lucas Lessio and has since remained in the AHL save for one game played with the Arizona Coyotes that year. Thomas signed an AHL only deal with the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins back in September and has found a depth role for himself on the team.
Ben Scrivens
Similar to Thomas, Ben Scrivens didn’t spend too much time with the Habs. The team was in dire need of goaltending with the season-long injury to Carey Price and chose to make a trade with the Oilers. Montreal received Scrivens in exchange for Zack Kassian who as having a poor start to his year.
He played in 15 games for an imploding Habs team sporting a .906 save percentage. Scrivens also played a single game for the Ice Caps which unfortunately was a loss.
The 31-year-old signed a one-year deal with Minsk Dynamo of the KHL the following summer and has now seen 35 games for Ufa Salavat Yulayev.
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In many ways, these four players helped the Montreal Canadiens over the course of their careers. It’ll be interesting to see how they do in Pyeongchang as each has shown that they can still contribute to a team’s success. The Olympics is usually a place for heroes and legacies to be made. Will one of Bourque, Lapierre, Thomas, or Scrivens get that honour?