Montreal Canadiens: Five Teams That Prove NHL Teams Can Go From Last to Playoffs

1997-98 Boston Bruins

Not much went right for the 1996-97 Boston Bruins. After making the playoffs for a record 29 straight seasons, not only did they miss the postseason, but they dropped all the way to last place in the NHL standings.

Of course, in 1998 that was just 26th overall, so it doesn’t sound quite as bad as 32nd. But the Bruins were at the bottom after allowing the most goals in the league and winning just 26 games.

They were able to turn things around immediately and make it back to the playoffs in 1998 and all it took was a serious of enormous transactions that drastically changed the direction of the franchise.

They selected Joe Thornton first overall in the 1997 NHL Draft and would take Sergei Samsonov with the 8th overall pick in that same draft.

They made a huge trade late in the last place season that sent veterans Adam Oates, Rick Tocchet and Bill Ranford to the Washington Capitals for youngsters Jason Allison, Anson Carter and Jim Carey. They also traded leading scorer Jozef Stumpel to the Los Angeles Kings for Dmitri Khristich and Byron Dafoe.

They also replaced Steve Kasper behind the bench with veteran Pat Burns who had already won two Jack Adams Awards in his career and would get a third with the Bruins.

While Thornton only scored seven points that season, their nearly completely revamped top six forwards with Allison, Carter, Samsonov and Khristich was enough to reset a veteran roster and get them right back to the playoffs.

They would lose to the Washington Capitals in six games in the opening round of the 1998 playoffs. Oates scored seven points in the series against his former team.

I guess that means the Canadiens are just two enormous trades, two top ten picks and a Hall of Fame head coach away from the playoffs next season?