Montreal Canadiens: Three Former Habs Who Deserve Hall of Fame Nod Today – But Likely Won’t

1. Pierre Turgeon

Once again, we have a player who certainly didn’t spend the bulk of his career with the Montreal Canadiens. However, Pierre Turgeon had a great, albeit far too short, stint in Montreal. The Rouyn-Noranda native started his career with the Buffalo Sabres after being the first overall pick in the 1987 NHL Draft.

His rookie season was fine but not fantastic, as he scored 14 goals and 42 points in 78 games which is nothing jaw dropping for the NHL in the 1980’s. However, he quickly became one of the best offensive players in the entire league. His sophomore season saw him score 34 goals and 88 points in 80 games and would lead to him averaging over a point per game in 11 of his next 13 seasons.

In that span, from 1988-89 to 2000-01, Turgeon would play for four different teams, but would score the sixth most points in that span. He trailed just Wayne Gretzky, Steve Yzerman, Joe Sakic, Adam Oates and Brett Hull who are all first ballot Hall of Fame players.

Turgeon arrived in Montreal in the 1994-95 season and would play just one full campaign with the Canadiens before being traded away early in the 1996-97 season. In his only full season with the Habs he scored 96 points and had a total of 127 points in 104 games. A points per game average of 1.22 which is only matched by Guy Lafleur in the history of the Montreal Canadiens franchise.

By the time his career ended in 2007, Turgeon has amassed 1294 games played, 515 goals, 812 assists and 1327 points. No one has more points than Turgeon and has been kept out of the Hall of Fame. The former Hab centre has three more goals and one more point than Gilbert Perreault had in his career and Perreault was a first ballot Hall of Famer in 1990. If Sidney Crosby retired today they would probably waive the three year waiting period and put him in the Hall of Fame tomorrow, but he needs to score 53 more goals and 64 more points to catch Turgeon on the all-time list.

The only thing holding Turgeon back would be his lack of individual awards. He was never named to a First or Second All-Star Team at the end of a season. However, his career happened to occur at the same time as Steve Yzerman and Joe Sakic were playing and his prime years overlapped with a couple of guys named Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky dominating the league. Being worse than Mario, Gretzky, Sakic and Yzerman shouldn’t keep Turgeon out of the Hall of Fame.

Mike Modano had very similar numbers to Turgeon and he was a first ballot Hall of Famer. Denis Savard had similar numbers and he was a first ballot Hall of Famer. Doug Gilmour had very similar numbers to Turgeon and he eventually got in. It will never make sense to me why Turgeon, who has been eligible since 2010 has waited over a decade and still hasn’t been called to the Hall.

Hopefully today is the day this former Habs centre finally gets his due. With all the former Habs greats who are already in the Hall of Fame, it is hard to believe there are some who were overlooked. However, John LeClair, Sergei Gonchar and especially Pierre Turgeon are worthy candidates.