Canadiens: Checking In On Four Former Fringe Habs Now Playing Overseas

It’s been a while since the Montreal Canadiens all-time roster was filled with mostly consistent, established NHL regulars, perennial all-stars, or even Hall of Famers. Sure, the 50s and 70s dynasties had their fair share of one-game wonders and bizarre callups, but in a time where backup goalies were a luxury and emergency players were a hot commodity, it makes a little bit more sense.

I’ve already discussed the utterly dreadful late 90s iteration of the Habs in bits and pieces. With the likes of Eric Houde, Andrei Bashkirov, Olivier Michaud, Patrick Labreque, Jean-Francois Jomphe, Dave Morrisette, Craig Darby, Francois Groleau, Matt Higgins, Xavier Delisle, Mathieu Descoteaux, Juha Lind and the honestly ridiculous amount of other random Quebec-born and similarly obscure players who saw regular minute.

It’s no wonder why this era is seen as (before this season) the lowest of the low for modern-day Canadiens teams. The 2021-22 Montreal Canadiens will unfortunately go down in history for all the wrong reasons. As bad as the late 1990’s Canadiens teams were, none failed as horribly as the most recent version of the team.

As I mentioned in my previous piece on the Canadiens draft history, things have picked up in bits and pieces in recent years, but only slightly. Case in point, the players I will be discussing today.

During the completely and utterly lost 2015-16 and 2017-18 seasons, the Habs turned to a lot of random, no-name callups to get the job done by season’s end, as the team got ravaged by injuries, inconsistencies, and quite frankly just poor performance, time and time again.

However, just because these players NHL careers didn’t work out, doesn’t mean they were done playing hockey. So with that being said, here’s a look at four former Habs callups now bouncing around the numerous leagues that exist overseas.

Lucas Lessio

For Lucas Lessio, his NHL tenure was brief and at times promising, but ultimately the Maple, Ontario native was never able to find a consistent role in North America. A second-round pick of the Phoenix Coyotes in 2011, Lessio was a model of consistency in his three seasons with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals and showcased that in parts in four seasons in the Yotes organization.

Establishing himself as a regular performer and a talented, physical, two-way winger with the Portland Pirates, Lessio saw a brief 26-game stint with the Coyotes in yet another lost season in 2014-15, posting 2-3-5 totals.

After starting the 2015-16 season with the Springfield Falcons, Lessio was dealt to the Canadiens in exchange for another once-prospect in Christian Thomas. Along with a brief stint with the St. John’s IceCaps, Lessio became an infrequent part of the Habs bottom six towards the end of the season, posting 1-1-2 totals over 12 games.

Since then, Lessio has pretty much played everywhere and anywhere overseas, seeing time in the KHL, SweHL, SM-Liiga, DEL, and the Czech Extraliga. After struggling to find his footing over his first four seasons (playing for seven different teams) Lessio has since found a home in Germany, finishing 30th in league scoring this year with the Krefeld Penguins, posting 25-16-41 totals over 56 games.

Christian Thomas

Speak of the devil, Thomas has, as mentioned before, been involved in trades with the past two players, yet ultimately, wound up taking a very similar career path (who would’ve thought?) Much like Kristo, Thomas was a second-round pick of the New York Rangers in 2010 who had posted immensely impressive numbers with the OHL’s Oshawa Generals.

While he had his moments here and there in the AHL, Thomas was never really given a chance offensively with any club he played for, and the same applied to his brief time in the NHL. Barring an 18-game stint with the Habs in 2014-15 (netting his only NHL goal) Thomas headed overseas after two productive seasons with the Hershey Bears and Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins.

The son of NHL regular and perennial goal scorer Steve Thomas, Christian has done what he can across the KHL, SweHL, NLA, and SM-Liiga, but in spite of great speed, solid shooting and playmaking abilities, Thomas has again bounced around quite a lot, struggling once again with his consistency.

While he’s yet to find his footing again in the KHL, Thomas had a decent first season with Chelyabinsk Traktor, and emerged as a solid contributor with KooKoo in the SM-Liiga in 2019-20. After going scoreless over nine games in the KHL to start this season, Thomas finished 2021-22 as a productive player for Bern SC of the NLA, posting 10-7-17 totals over 28 games.

Daniel Audette

So, there is admittedly a bit of an asterisk attached to this one, as Audette never dressed for the Canadiens nor played in the NHL in general. However, that doesn’t mean he wasn’t a part of the Canadiens organization.

The son of NHL regular and former Buffalo Sabres star Donald Audette, Daniel was a productive QMJHL scorer and fifth round pick of the Habs in 2014. In spite of those numbers however, Audette never quite put it together in the AHL, achieving highs of 13-25-38 totals over 58 games off an AHL deal with the Springfield Thunderbirds in the 2019-20 season. Along with an up and down stint with the Canadiens AHL teams, Audette has since picked things up after heading overseas.

While I didn’t have much expectations production wise considering his previous numbers, Audette emerged as a top contributor on the larger ice overseas, finishing second in league scoring with Lukko Rauma of the SM-Liiga in the 2020-21 season, and 15th in league scoring for the Podolsk Vityaz of the KHL in 2021-22.

After leaving the team in the middle of the season, Audette finished the season with Orebro HK of the SweHL where he scored six points in 11 regular season games and added three points in seven playoff contests.

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