Montreal Canadiens: This Day In Habs History: Tragedy Strikes Babe Seibert

The Montreal Canadiens have a long history of winning NHL Awards and many of the names are quite famous.

Rocket Richard had the leading goal scorers trophy named after him. Doug Harvey won nearly every Norris trophy for a decade. Ken Dryden, Jacques Plante and Patrick Roy had their name etched on the Vezina Trophy multiple times each.

Their names are legendary, even decades after they have stopped playing for the Canadiens. One of their Hart Trophy winners is not quite as well known these days.

Babe Siebert played most of his career with the Montreal Maroons, New York Rangers and Boston Bruins before joining the Canadiens for the final three years of his career. His first year with the Canadiens, he switched from his usual position of left wing to play defence, but it didn’t stop him from jumping into the rush regularly.

Siebert would score eight goals and 28 points in 44 games in the 1936-37 season. It was not common for defenders to put up these kinds of numbers at that time and it earned Siebert the Hart Trophy as league MVP.

He played two more seasons with the Canadiens, scoring 35 points in 81 total games. He retired following the 1938-39 season having scored 140 goals and 296 points in 593 career games. A few weeks after announcing his retirement as a player, Siebert was named head coach of the Canadiens.

Unfortunately, Siebert never had the opportunity to coach a game behind the Canadiens bench. The 35 year old drowned while swimming in Lake Huron.

The NHL held a Babe Siebert Memorial Game at the Montreal Forum in October of 1939, raising money for Siebert’s family. It was, essentially the league’s third ever All-Star Game as it would late become an annual event.

Siebert was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1964. His time with the Canadiens was short, but so is the list of players who have won a Hart Trophy in their careers.