Montreal Canadiens: Five Best American Players To Suit Up For Habs

The Montreal Canadiens have had plenty of great players from the United States. Here are the top five.

The Montreal Canadiens best players of all-time are mostly from Canada. While their top goal scorer, Maurice Richard and highest point scorer, Guy Lafleur, as well as their best goaltenders, Jacques Plante and Patrick Roy are all from the same province they played the bulk of their careers, not all Habs stars have come from Quebec.

They have had great players from all across Canada. Carey Price and Shea Weber are from the western parts of the country. Ken Dryden and Larry Robinson were born in Ontario. Bobby Smith was born in Nova Scotia.

There have been great players suit up for the Habs from all across the globe. Mats Naslund became one of the first stars from Europe when the Swedish winger scored 612 points in 617 games with the Canadiens throughout the 1980’s. That paved the way for Andrei Markov, Alex Kovalev, Saku Koivu and Tomas Plekanec to play huge roles in the city of Montreal in the 1990’s and 2000’s.

By their centennial season, the team had Cristobal Huet from France, Andrei and Sergei Kostitsyn from Belarus, Jaroslav Halak from Slovakia, Plekanec, Roman Hamrlik and Robert Lang from Czech Republic. Koivu from Finland, Markov and Kovalev from Russia, a handful of Canadians, and Chris Higgins, Mike Komisarek and Mathieu Schneider from the United States.

Today being July 4, which is Independence Day in the United States, it seemed appropriate to shine a light on the players from just south of the border to Quebec. While they have had contributions from literally all over the globe, the Canadiens would not have been able to win their last two Stanley Cups without huge contributions from American born players.

John LeCalir’s two overtime winning goals in the Stanley Cup Finals in 1993 and Schneider’s excellent play were huge factors in the team’s last Cup win. Chris Chelios was a huge part of the 1986 Cup winning team while Chris Nilan and Craig Ludwig played important depth roles.

Without those Americans, the Canadiens might not have won a Stanley Cup since 1979. Back then, the NHL was mostly made up of Canadian players, but the American’s have been closing that gap since they won “The Miracle On Ice” in 1980 by taking down the Soviet Union in the Winter Olympics. popularity in the sport has grown rapidly in the country and today, if there was a best on best between Canada and the United States today, it would be a coin flip.

Currently, the Canadiens are fortunate to have Jeff Petry in their lineup, and have a number of great prospects from America, like Cayden Primeau, Ryan Poehling, Jayden Struble, Jordan Harris and Rhett Pitlick.

In honour of Independence Day, let’s take a look at the five best players from the United States in the history of the Montreal Canadiens.

5. Brian Gionta

Brian Gionta signed with the Habs on July 1, 2009 in the offseason that saw more turnover than any other in franchise history. While former leaders and top scorers like Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang, and Mike Komisarek all walked away from Montreal via free agency, Gionta was the guy tasked with picking up the pieces.

He wasn’t named captain until a year later, but Gionta was a huge part of the new leadership core that was brought in after a failed attempt at building a winner for the Canadiens centennial season.

While the team struggled in what was supposed to be a magical 2009 playoffs, Gionta was a huge part of them making a surprising run in the 2010 postseason. Jaroslav Halak and Mike Cammalleri get most of the praise for the Habs taking out the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins that spring, they couldn’t have done it without Gionta’s contribution.

The native of Rochester, New York scored 28 goals and 46 points in 61 games during his first season in Montreal. In 19 playoff games that year, he scored nine goals and 15 points. Both of those numbers put him second on the team behind Cammalleri, and pretty far ahead of anyone else on the roster.

Gionta signed a five-year contract when he joined the Habs and earned every penny of his $5 million annual salary. He would score 97 goals and 173 points in 303 career games with the Canadiens. He took on a leadership role that was left void from Saku Koivu departing and shouldered a heavy burden while helping the team on a lengthy playoff run in 2010.

4. Jeff Petry

When Jeff Petry arrived in Montreal in 2015 it appeared his stay would be short. He was brought in as a “rental” at the trade deadline, or so it seemed. Before hitting free agency that summer, he decided to sign an extension to stay with the Habs for six more seasons. His $5.5 million cap hit sounded like a lot on the day he signed the deal, but has turned into a bargain.

In his first four full seasons with the Canadiens, he increased his point total every year and could have again this season with a strong finish. That won’t happen with the season on pause but his 11 goals and 40 points in 71 games was another strong year for the Ann Arbor, Michigan product.

Unfortunately, there has not been a ton of team success since Petry arrived but he has far exceeded individual expectations since he arrived in Montreal. His career high in points before being traded was 25 and he topped that in each of the past four seasons.

Petry took on a second pairing role behind P.K. Subban when he first came to Montreal, and has continued to play a strong game from that role since Subban was swapped out for Shea Weber. While Weber’s booming slap shot gets a lot of the attention, Petry plays a calm, smart, two-way game and has always given the Habs good minutes when Weber was out with injury.

In four and a half seasons in Montreal, Petry has scored 52 goals and 179 points in 385 games. He has one year left on that contract he signed in 2015 and even if he disappears for most of next season, he will have been worth every dollar.

2. Max Pacioretty

Max Pacioretty was acquired as part of a trade that sent Craig Rivet to the San Jose Sharks at the trade deadline in 2007. Though the Habs were in the mix for a playoff spot that year, general manager Bob Gainey pulled the trigger on a deal that brought them a first round pick that he would use to select Pacioretty.

It was a bit slow starting out, but Pacioretty turned into one of the best goal scorers in the league. His first taste of NHL action came in the 2008-09 campaign which didn’t go well for really anyone in Montreal. Pacioretty scored three goals and 11 points in 34 games and had just three goals and 11 assists the following year in 52 games.

Things got better in the 2010-11 season before devastating injury, but the New Canaan native really broke out in 2011-12. Pacioretty became a consistent 30 goal scorer, hitting the mark in five consecutive full seasons.  He set a career high with 39 in the 2013-14 season and scored 67 points the following year.

On a team that didn’t have a lot of scoring depth, or any other real offensive stars, Pacioretty helped lead the Habs to four playoff appearances in five years and had three 100 point seasons in a four year span. Without Pacioretty’s offence, they would have been lucky to even get to the postseason.

In ten seasons with the Habs, Pacioretty scored 226 goals and 222 assists for 448 points in 626 games. He has 118 more goals than any other American in Habs history and is 139 points ahead of Chris Chelios who has the second most points by an American in Canadiens history.

1. Chris Chelios

Chris Chelios of Chicago, Illinois was selected by the Montreal Canadiens with the 40th overall selection in the second round of the 1981 NHL Draft. With the benefit of hindsight, you could make the argument that Chelios should have been drafted first overall that year instead of Dale Hawerchuk.

Chelios went to the University of Wisconsin after being drafted (yes, that is where Cole Caufield is right now). He played two years there and was exceptional immediately. He scored 49 points in 43 games as a freshman and followed that with 48 points in 46 games the next year.

Chelios made his NHL debut late in the 1983-84 season, scoring two points in 12 games for the Habs but he did have ten points in 15 playoff games that spring. His rookie season of 1984-85 was fantastic as he scored 64 points in 74 games and played a tough and rugged style that was required of NHL defenders at that time. He was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team but would help the team reach loftier goals the following year.

Though it was just his second NHL campaign. Chelios played like a veteran, scoring 34 points in 41 regular season games and taking on a huge role on the team. He chipped in 11 points in 20 playoff games as the Canadiens won the Stanley Cup.

His best season with the Habs came in 1988-98. The American defender scored 73 points in 80 games and was named the Norris Trophy winner. He was also fifth on the balloting for the Hart Trophy as league MVP. His 19 points in 21 playoff games helped the Habs reach the Stanley Cup Final, but they were defeated by the Calgary Flames.

Chelios played just one more year with the Canadiens after that, before being traded to his hometown Blackhawks for Denis Savard. It was, quite possibly the worst trade in Habs history as Chelios remained a Norris caliber Defenceman for another decade.

In six full seasons with the Habs and a small part of a seventh, Chelios scored 309 points in 402 games, won a Norris Trophy and became one of the most difficult defencemen in the league for the opposition to deal with.

He was, without a doubt, the best American the Canadiens every had. It’s too bad they traded him for a local player who was past his prime.