A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens: Five Worst Trades Since 2000

By Ken MacMillan

TORONTO - OCTOBER 7: Tomas Kaberle #15 of the Toronto Maple Leafs chops Scott Gomez #11 of the Montreal Canadiens during a regular season NHL game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre October 7, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images)
TORONTO - OCTOBER 7: Tomas Kaberle #15 of the Toronto Maple Leafs chops Scott Gomez #11 of the Montreal Canadiens during a regular season NHL game against the Toronto Maple Leafs at the Air Canada Centre October 7, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Abelimages/Getty Images) /
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LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – OCTOBER 05: The jersey of Cristobal Huet #39 (Photo by RvS.Media/Robert Hradil/Getty Images)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – OCTOBER 05: The jersey of Cristobal Huet #39 (Photo by RvS.Media/Robert Hradil/Getty Images) /

#5: Cristobal Huet traded for second round draft pick

The Habs acquired Huet from the Los Angeles Kings following the 2003-04 season when he was an unknown commodity in the NHL. He had played the past two seasons in North America, but the  native of France had just 54 games of NHL experience and would soon be 29 years old.

They would have to wait over a year to see him in a Habs sweater as the 2004-05 lockout forced Huet to play pro in Germany for the season. When he finally donned the Habs colours, Huet was excellent. He played just 36 games as he had to wrestle the number one job away from incumbent Jose Theodore, but Huet posted a sparkling .929 save percentage during one of the highest scoring seasons in recent memory in the NHL.

Huet was solid again in 2006-07 but an injury late in the season saw the Habs drop a bit in the standings and just miss the playoffs by two points. In 2007-08, the Habs surprisingly surged to the top of the Eastern Conference standings. While they had a couple of intriguing young goalies in the system in Carey Price and Jaroslav Halak, they were just 22 and 20 years old.

Trusting one of those young goalies with shouldering the Montreal Canadiens through a playoff run would be a bit too much to ask. Or so we thought. With the Habs firmly in a playoff spot at the trade deadline, instead of adding some assets to help in the postseason, they traded Huet to the Washington Capitals for a second round pick.

Ignoring the fact they would have to have gone through the Washington Capitals to get deep into the postseason, the return was not going to help the team any time soon. Huet was phenomenal for the Capitals late in the year and Price struggled in his first playoffs. The Habs bowed out meekly to the Philadelphia Flyers in round two, with both young goaltenders struggling against the deep Flyers squad.

A veteran like Huet would have been a nice security blanket for Price as a rookie goaltender feeling the pressure of the postseason in Montreal for the first time.

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