Montreal Canadiens Hall Of Fame Case: Marc Tardif

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 dynasty of the 1970’s brings to mind names like Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson and Ken Dryden. They also had Steve Shutt, Jacques Lemaire, Guy Lapointe and Serge Savard to name a few more Hall of Fame players that helped the team win four consecutive Stanley Cups from 1976-79.

It is hard to believe, but the team may have been even better had the WHA not been formed. While that dynasty team is known as perhaps the greatest team ever built, the Canadiens did lost a couple of really good players to the rival league.

None of those players was as good as Marc Tardif. The native of Granby, Quebec was a high scoring Junior player and was drafted second overall in the 1969 NHL Draft. He was one of, and the final, territorial pick ever made by the Canadiens. The Canadiens were allowed to claim the top two Quebec players in the draft at the time, and though they did not use it as often as is commonly believed, they did get Rejean Houle and Tardif in 1969.

Tardif played one season in the AHL where he scored 27 goals and 58 points in 45 games with the Montreal Voyageurs. He made the Canadiens lineup in 1970-71 and scored 19 goals and 49 points in 76 games as a rookie. He followed that up with seasons of 31 goals and 53 points and then 25 goals and 50 points.

He was 23 years old when that season ended and clearly becoming an impact player at the NHL level. Then, he signed with the Los Angeles Sharks of the WHA, leaving the NHL for its rival league. He scored 40 goals and 70 points in his initial WHA season, then moved on to the Michigan Stags and Baltimore Blades the following season before finding his way to the Quebec Nordiques.

He flourished playing in Quebec, scoring 38 goals and 72 points in 53 games after being acquired. He would go on to lead the league in scoring twice, scoring 71 goals and 148 points in 81 games in 1975-76 as well as 65 goals and 154 points in 78 games in 1977-78. He was named the league’s MVP in both 1976 and 1978.

In six total seasons in the WHA, Tardif scored 316 goals and 666 points in 446 games. The only player to score more points was Andre Lacroix and no one had more goals in the history of the WHA than Tardif.

Tardif returned to the NHL in 1979-80 when it merged with the NHL. He stayed with the Nordiques who were one of the four teams to survive the merger. In his first season back in the NHL, he scored 33 goals and 68 points in 58 games. He added 54 points the following season and then scored 39 goals and 70 points in 1981-82. He retired in 1983 at the age of 33 following a season of 21 goals and 52 points.

Tardif played a total of 517 NHL games in his career, scoring 194 goals and 401 points. His NHL totals were impressive, especially considering he only played in the league from the age of 20-23 and then 30-33.

His best years were definitely in the WHA and he was arguably the best player to play in the league. He was the top goal scorer in the history of a professional league and deserves recognition for that accomplishment.

Tardif has been retired for 40 years so his name does not often come up in Hall of Fame chatter. However, there is no time limit on when a player can be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame and a teammate of Tardif’s, Rogie Vachon, was elected in 2016.

As possibly the best player to ever play in the WHA, Tardif is just as deserving of Hall of Fame recognition.

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