Montreal Canadiens: Five Best Trades Since 2000
#3: Alex Kovalev for Josef Balej and a 2nd Round Pick.
The Habs were in a playoff race in the 2003-04 season when the trade deadline was approaching. They were getting some solid scoring from the round duo of Mike Ribeiro and Michael Ryder as well as Saku Koivu and Richard Zednik, but they needed another asset in the top six.
The New York Rangers had grown tired of paying big bucks to their players and not making any noise in the postseason. They quickly fell out of the playoff race with the Habs and then had one of the most fascinating midseason fire-sales in NHL history. They had added Jaromir Jagr in the middle of the year, but not long after traded away most of their roster.
One of those trades sent Alex Kovalev to the Habs for prospect Josef Balej and a second round pick they would use to select Bruce Graham. Balej and Graham combined to play 18 career NHL games and Kovalev would become a rockstar in Montreal.
Kovalev would play the rest of that 2003-04 season with the Habs and then four more full seasons after the 2004-05 season was wiped out due to the lockout. In total, he played 314 games with the Canadiens and scored 103 goals and 264 points. He added an impressive 17 goals and 31 points in 33 playoff games with the Habs.
#2: Josh Gorges and a First Round Pick for Craig Rivet and a Fifth Round Pick
The 2006-07 season was a difficult year to be general manager of the Habs. Bob Gainey had the unenviable task of trying to stay in a tight postseason race in the Eastern Conference, while his top three defencemen were all playing in the final year of their contract before they would be eligible to become unrestricted free agents.
The salary cap was barely over $40 million that season, so keeping all three of Andrei Markov, Sheldon Souray and Craig Rivet would be impossible. Trading two or three of them would guarantee the Habs would miss the playoffs that year.
Souray was a force offensively that year, scoring 26 goals and finishing second on the team with 64 points. Markov was blossoming into a terrific two-way player that was taking on huge minutes and playing all situations. Rivet was a steady, veteran presence who played a great defensive style.
Gainey elected to trade Rivet at the trade deadline to the San Jose Sharks. In return, the Habs added a young, unproved Josh Gorges on defence and a first round pick. That. is a difficult package to pass up, which is why Gainey pulled the trigger, even with the Habs in the middle of a playoff race that would ultimately see them fall two points short.
Of course, Gorges quickly became one of the Habs best defensive defencemen, playing huge minutes against opponent’s best players and being a mainstay on the penalty kill during his seven full seasons in Montreal.
The real asset in the trade was the first round pick the Habs received. The Sharks were really good in 2007, so it was going to be late in the first round, but that was still great value for a veteran, defensive guy like Rivet. Selecting Max Pacioretty with that pick just made this trade even better for the Habs.
Instead of having Rivet for the rest of that season and maybe getting into the first round of the playoffs, the Habs got seven years of top-four defensive production from Gorges and a decade of goal scoring from Pacioretty.