Montreal Canadiens Pierre Turgeon Deserves Hall of Fame Nod

The Montreal Canadiens have a long, rich history of superstars including many Hall of Fame players. One of their more underappreciated players should get a nod to enter the Hall of Fame this afternoon.

The Montreal Canadiens have enshrined many legends into the Hall of Fame over the years. When you think of the Hall of Fame, you think of Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Patrick Roy, Guy Lafleur, Ken Dryden, Doug Harvey and Larry Robinson. The list is extensive.

That list should grow by one this afternoon. Pierre Turgeon only played a short portion of his career in Montreal, but he had a fabulous NHL career and deserves to be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Rouyn-Noranda native was the first overall selection in the 1987 NHL Entry Draft. He had a tremendous Junior career with the Granby Bisons. In two seasons he scored 116 goals and 268 points in 127 games. The Buffalo Sabres were wise to take Turgeon with the first pick and immediately pencil him into their lineup for the 1987-88 season.

More from Habs News

• Montreal Canadiens: Biggest Questions Going Into 2023-24
• Montreal Canadiens: Quentin Miller’s Poise And Confidence Fuel His Game
• Montreal Canadiens: Laval Rocket Top Defence Pair Could Be Set
• Montreal Canadiens: Worst Move Of The Pierre Gauthier Era
• Montreal Canadiens: Could Casey DeSmith End Up In Colorado?

He scored 42 points in 76 games as a rookie, but added seven points in just six playoff games that season. In his second season, Turgeon would have the first of his 11 seasons that saw him average more than a point per game. His first 100 point season came in 1989-90 when he was just 20 years old.

Early in the 1991-92 season, Turgeon was dealt to the New York Islanders as part of an enormous trade that had Pat Lafontaine going to Buffalo. Turgeon’s best season came in 1992-93 with the Islanders when he scored 58 goals, 74 assists and 132 points in 83 games. (That’s right, they played 84 games back then.)

Turgeon helped the Islanders to the third round of the playoffs, scoring 13 points in 11 games. He was eventually stopped by the Montreal Canadiens in the third round en route to their most recent Stanley Cup championship.

The two teams must have been impressed by what they saw in that series, because less than two years later they made a huge trade involving some core pieces from either side. The Canadiens sent Kirk Muller, Mathieu Schneider and Craig Darby to the Islanders for Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov.

Turgeon’s tenure with the Habs was short lived but nothing short of spectacular. He finished the 1995 lockout shortened season with Montreal after the trade and scored 20 points in 15 games. His only full season with the Canadiens was the 1995-96 season and he scored 96 points in 80 games.

The team was led by Rejean Houle at the time, and in order to make more room for Saku Koivu and Vincent Damphousse at center, he dealt Turgeon early in the 1996-97 season to the St. Louis Blues for Murray Baron, an aging Shayne Corson and a 5th round draft pick. Houle also decided to throw Craig Conroy and Rory Fitzpatrick into the deal.

Thus ended one of the most impressive tenures in recent memory in Montreal. Before the trade and dealing with intense media speculation about an upcoming trade, Turgeon scored 11 points in nine games before packing for St. Louis.

All told, Turgeon played 104 games in a Habs sweater, scoring 50 goals, 77 assists and 127 points. His 1.22 points per game is the second highest ever recorded by a player in Canadiens history. Think about that, all the great players that ever suited up in Montreal and the only one who scored points at a greater frequency than Turgeon was Guy Lafleur.

It’s incredible that Turgeon doesn’t get more recognition for how good he was in Montreal. His tenure was fairly short, and the team was in disarray thanks to bumbling management decisions in the mid to late 90’s, but that shouldn’t take away from Turgeon’s reputation as an excellent scorer.

His 96 points in 1996 are still the most a Montreal Canadiens player has scored in a season since Vincent Damphousse had 97 in the Stanley Cup winning season of 1993.

Turgeon would go on to play five seasons with the Blues and averaged over a point per game in four of them. He finished his career with short stints playing a depth role with the Colorado Avalanche and the Dallas Stars.

He retired in 2007 having played 1294 games and scoring 1327 points for six different teams. Not many players can play close to 1300 games in their career and still average more than a point per game. In fact, only 33 players have ever played over a thousand games and scored at a point-per-game pace.

Turgeon’s 1327 points rank him 32nd all time and all 31 players ahead of him are already in the Hall of Fame.

This season, there are not many slam dunk picks from the NHL. Hayley Wickenheiser is the only lock to get in today. When this happens, you usually see a few players who have been passed over in previous years finally get acknowledged.

It’s time for the Hall of Fame committee to finally induct Pierre Turgeon to the Hockey Hall of Fame. His incredible career is unmatched by anyone that has not already been inducted and that needs to change.