Montreal Canadiens: Five Former Habs Who Looked Odd In New Colors

The Montreal Canadiens have seen some of their greatest players leave town. Some of them just looked strange wearing something other than the bleu, blanc et rouge.

The Montreal Canadiens have employed some of the greatest hockey players of all time. Some of their most historic figures showed up in Montreal as young players and never left. Maurice Richard, Jean Beliveau, Henri Richard and Ken Dryden played their entire NHL careers with the Canadiens.

Not all of the Habs all-time greats stuck around forever. With a salary cap, free agency and high provincial taxes in Montreal, it is becoming more and more rare that a star player stays in one city for his entire NHL career.

This is not unique to the National Hockey League either. Just last week, we saw Tom Brady leave the New England Patriots to sign a two-year deal with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. After playing 20 seasons with the Patriots and winning six Super Bowl titles, it is going to be odd seeing Brady in another jersey.

This got me thinking about some of the former Habs who left town and just looked strange wearing another team’s uniform. While some, like the Richard brothers and Beliveau, and maybe Carey Price, never left town, many of the Habs star players did.

So, let’s take a look at the top five players who left Montreal and just looked strange wearing the colors of another NHL team.

5. Tomas Plekanec

Tomas Plekanec was never a superstar player for the Montreal Canadiens, but he did have a very long career with the Habs and was a steady, reliable two-way player for them for a long time. He was drafted by the Canadiens in the third round of the 2001 NHL Draft.

Plekanec played the first 981 games of his career with the Canadiens. This spanned from his debut in the 2003-04 season until he left Montreal at the trade deadline in 2018. In that time, he scored 232 goals and 605 points.

The Czech Republic’s best season came in 2009-10 when he put up 70 points. So, he was never an Art Ross candidate but he was a consistently great second line centre for the Habs during that nearly 15 year run with the Canadiens organization. Plekanec currently ranks 18th in goals scored in a Habs sweater and 13th in total points.

He was such a reliable, consistent player for so long that it was strange to see him leave town and play somewhere else. Making it even more odd was that he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Seeing Plekanec wear a Dallas Stars jersey or a Buffalo Sabres sweater would have been odd. Looking back at a picture of him wearing the blue Maple Leaf jersey is just weird.

Plekanec played 17 games with the Leafs that season and seven more playoff games. He had a couple goals in that playoff series against the Boston Bruins, but he re-signed with the Canadiens that summer. Plekanec played 1095 NHL games in his career. 1071 of them were with the Habs. The other 24 saw him wear a Maple Leafs sweater which still seems odd.

4. Patrick Roy

Patrick Roy stepped into the Montreal Canadiens crease in 1986 and confidently continued the long history of great goaltenders in Montreal. Roy helped lead the Habs to their 23rd Stanley Cup that season with stellar play in the postseason. He won the Conn Smythe as Playoff MVP that year.

Roy would win another Conn Smythe in 1993, and also won three Vezina Trophy’s in a four year span between the two Stanley Cup titles. He was well on his way to taking over all of the all-time records that had been set in the illustrious history of the Habs.

Roy was just 25 regular season wins shy of Jacques Plante’s all-time record with the Habs. He needed just ten more playoff wins to surpass Ken Dryden’s team record of 80. He could have topped both of those marks in one more season.

Then, he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche in December of 1995. He would play seven and a half more seasons in Colorado, so the Avs jersey started to look less weird on him over time. Especially with him winning two more Stanley Cups in Colorado and another Conn Smythe in 2001.

There was a time in the early 1990’s when it seemed like Roy would be in the Canadiens crease until he hung up his skates for good. Though the Avalanche started to look less weird on him by the time he did retire, when he first put it on, with that all-white helmet, it was hard to believe it was Patrick Roy underneath all the gear.

3. Larry Robinson

When you think of Larry Robinson, you probably think of the Habs last great dynasty of the late 1970’s. He was a huge part of that team that won four straight Stanley Cups to end that decade as a member of its famed “Big Three” blue liners with Serge Savard and Guy Lapointe.

Robinson was drafted in the second round of the 1971 draft, and played his first full season for the Habs in 1973-74. He quickly became a key part of one of the best teams of all-time, as he scored 85 points in 1976-77, winning the first of two Norris Trophy’s.

After winning five Stanley Cups in the 70’s, Robinson stuck around long enough to win another in 1986. He was still a dominating presence, scoring 82 points in 78 games that season and using his  huge frame to provide exceptional defence while scoring over a point per game. Robinson was still in Montreal when they lost to the Calgary Flames in the 1989 Stanley Cup Final, but he then left.

While with the Habs, Robinson proved to be among the best defenders that ever played in Montreal. Only Henri Richard played more than the 1202 regular season games Robinson suited up for in a Habs sweater. Robinson’s 197 goals and 883 points rank first among all Habs defensemen.

Robinson was then off to the west coast to play for the Los Angeles Kings. He would go on to play his final three seasons with the Kings, though he was no longer the same dominating physical player that he was when the Habs were winning Stanley Cups every year.

Robinson finally retired in 1992, shortly before his 41st birthday. He didn’t play a huge role for the Kings, but even after three years there is still looks strange to see Larry Robinson wearing any jersey other than the one that he wore for so long in Montreal.

2. Saku Koivu

Saku Koivu did not climb the Montreal Canadiens all-time lists like Patrick Roy and Larry Robinson. Still, he put up strong numbers over a long career with the Habs, but his strongest impact came from things that he overcome and accomplished off the ice.

Koivu was drafted in the first round of the 1993 NHL Draft, just weeks after the Canadiens won their most recent Stanley Cup. He showed tremendous promise early in his career but most of his production early on was derailed by injuries.

The Finnish center scored 20 goals and 45 points as a rookie in 1995-96 after playing a few more seasons in Finland before making the move to Montreal. Koivu was terrific in his sophomore season, scoring 56 points in 50 games, on pace to finish top ten in league scoring, but injuries cut his season short.

After playing all 82 games as a rookie, Koivu would not play more than 69 until the 2002-03 season. Of course, this was the first year he was back after defeating cancer during the 2001-02 season and returning with three games left in the regular season. He would score ten points in 12 playoff games, helping lead the Habs to an upset victory over the Boston Bruins in round one.

Koivu set career highs with 22 goals and 75 points in 2006-07. He was always at his best in the playoffs, scoring 48 points in 54 postseason games with the Habs. He was the captain of the team during its centennial season in 2008-09 and it came as quite a shock when he signed with the Anaheim Ducks following that season.

Koivu played five seasons in California, but just never looked right in a Ducks sweater. He was such an inspirational leader during his time in Montreal it felt like he would never leave. Even after he played five years elsewhere, it still fells strange when you see a picture of him in a Ducks sweater and are reminded he did go on to play somewhere other than Montreal.