Montreal Canadiens Hall Of Fame Case: Vincent Damphousse

The Montreal Canadiens are well represented in the Hockey Hall of Fame, but a number of former Canadiens players also deserve attention. We are doing a series on a number of these former Habs greats who have a chance of being elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame on Wednesday, June 21.

The Montreal Canadiens have a long list of great players that are already in the Hockey Hall of Fame. When you think of their best forwards, there are some no-doubters like Guy Lafleur, Maurice Richard and Jean Beliveau.

There are others who were less heralded, or maybe didn’t play during the 1950’s or 1970’s so they don’t have their name written all over the Stanley Cup like parks on a city map.

Players like Pierre Turgeon, who had an incredibly impressive career, but was never the best center in the world. Or Marc Tardif who was not the greatest player in NHL history but was probably the best player in the history of the WHA.

Then there is Vincent Damphousse, who was never the greatest player on the planet, but had a long, successful career and piled up points throughout his career.

A native of Montreal, Damphousse was a dominant Junior player for the Laval Voisins/Titan. He scored 103 points in 1984-85 and followed that up with 155 points in 1985-86. He was drafted sixth overall by the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1986 NHL Draft and debuted for them right away. He put up 21 goals and 46 points in 80 games as a rookie, making an impact in the NHL right away.

He really blossomed in 1989-90 when he scored 33 goals and 94 points in 80 games. The skilled forward was traded to the Edmonton Oilers in 1991 in a trade that sent Grant Fuhr and Glenn Anderson to the Maple Leafs. A year later he was packing his bags again, but this time he was headed home.

Damphousse was acquired by the Canadiens in the summer of 1992, essentially for Shayne Corson. He would have his best season of his career in his first year in Montreal, scoring 39 goals and 97 points in 84 games. That spring, he played on the team’s top line with Kirk Muller and Brian Bellows, scoring 23 points in 20 playoff games and helping the Canadiens win their most recent Stanley Cup.

He would score 40 goals the next season, the last Canadiens player to do so, and also had 94 points. Him and Pierre Turgeon are the last Canadiens players to reach the 90 point plateau as Turgeon scored 96 that same season.

Damphousse would eventually be traded to the San Jose Sharks in 1999. He continued to play well for them scoring 70 points in his first full season with them and ended his career in 2003-04 after scoring 41 points in the regular season and 14 points in 17 playoff games.

In total, Damphousse was able to stay remarkably healthy throughout his career and played 1378 games while scoring 432 goals and 1205 points. He added 41 goals and 104 points in 140 career playoff games, most notably helping the Canadiens win the Stanley Cup in 1993.

That puts him just inside the top 50 in scoring in NHL history. When you consider how long the league has been around, and Damphousse has scored more points than Sergei Fedorov and Daniel Alfredsson, he definitely deserves some consideration as well.

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