Montreal Canadiens: Three Former Habs Who Were Snubbed By Hall of Fame Again

Claude Lemieux

Claude Lemieux was a second round pick of the Habs in 1983 and he burst onto the NHL scene in 1986. A lot of the credit for that Stanley Cup goes to Patrick Roy and his rookie heroics in goal, but the team would not have won the Cup without Lemieux’s rookie heroics up front.

Lemieux scored ten goals and 16 points in 20 games in what was really his first taste of NHL action that spring. He had played the regular season in the AHL and had just 11 NHL regular season games of experience at the time.

It truly was a sign of things to come as Lemieux quickly became known as a clutch playoff scorer. His regular season totals were never phenomenal, but he always played his best hockey at playoff time.

In total, Lemieux played 1215 regular season games, scored 379 goals and had 786 points. Those really aren’t Hall of Fame numbers on their own, but it is his playoff accolades that make his a legitimate candidate to be inducted some day.

Lemieux won four Stanley Cups and played an incredible 234 career postseason games. He scored 80 goals and 158 points in those games. That is the 9th most playoff goals all-time and the 26th most postseason points ever.

He’s top ten in playoff goals. Ever. That puts him ahead of Jean Beliveau and Alex Ovechkin and Jaromir Jagr and Steve Yzerman. That puts Lemieux in some incredible company as he is one of the best goal scorers of all-time at the most important time of year. That should put him in the Hall of Fame.