Montreal Canadiens: Shades of ’93 With Young Defense Corps

The current version of the Montreal Canadiens is loaded with up-and-coming young defensemen.  Still under the age of 23, Justin Barron, Kaiden Guhle, Jordan Harris, and Arber Xhekaj have already logged significant time at the NHL level and do not look out of place.  Not to mention Jonathan Kovacevic, still only 25 years old himself.  The Canadiens also have several more promising blueline prospects in the pipeline, with Adam Engstrom, Lane Hutson, Logan Mailloux, and David Reinbacher.

This group reminds me of the last time the Habs had a crop of young defenders like this, and if history can repeat itself, they will not be forgotten.

In the summer of 1989, legendary Habs defenseman Larry Robinson departed to Los Angeles as a free agent.  The following year, Canadiens general manager Serge Savard traded his best defenseman Chris Chelios to the Chicago Blackhawks in a deal for forward Denis Savard.  That same offseason, he also moved out veterans Rick Green and Craig Ludwig.  In doing so, he turned his blueline over to a new generation.

At the start of the 1990-91 season, the Habs defensive group consisted of Eric Desjardins, Mathieu Schneider, Petr Svoboda, Sylvain Lefebvre, J.J. Daigneault, Donald Dufresne, Alain Cote, Gerald Diduck, Patrice Brisebois and Lyle Odelein.  All players between the ages of 20 and 25 at the time they more than held their own and would turn out to be the foundation of a team that reached the top of the NHL mountain in a few short years.

There was some minor tweaking along the way.  Diduck was flipped to Vancouver in 1991 for a prospect.  In the spring of 1992, the Habs swapped d-men with Buffalo as Svoboda was dealt for the younger Kevin Haller, and that summer Lefebvre was sent to Toronto for a draft pick.  Then, in March of 1993, Cote would be packaged with another young defense prospect, Eric Charron, and future considerations to Tampa Bay for veteran Rob Ramage.  Oddly enough, those future considerations turned out to be Dufresne when that deal was completed after the season.  Finally, another youngster, Sean Hill, would also join the group during the 1992-93 season, and all the pieces were in place.

We all know what happened in the 1993 Stanley Cup Playoffs, and it was done on the back of a still very young blueline that had come together over the previous few years.  Have a look at the list of age and games played by defensemen in the 1992-93 regular season and playoffs:

Eric Desjardins (age 23) > 82 GP in regular season, 20 GP in playoffs

Mathieu Schneider (age 23) > 60 GP in regular season, 11 GP in playoffs

Patrice Brisebois (age 22) > 70 GP in regular season, 20 GP in playoffs

Kevin Haller (age 22) > 73 GP in regular season, 17 GP in playoffs

J.J. Daigneault (age 27) > 66 GP in regular season, 20 GP in playoffs

Lyle Odelein (age 24) > 83 GP in regular season, 20 GP in playoffs

Sean Hill (age 22) > 31 GP in regular season, 3 GP in playoffs

Donald Dufresne (age 25) > 32 GP in regular season, 2 GP in playoffs

Rob Ramage (age 34) > 8 GP in regular season, 7 GP in playoffs

There are no Norris Trophy winners in this group.  No Hall of Famers.  They are just a bunch of solid, versatile, two-way defensemen.  It reminds me very much of the modern-day Canadiens, and hopefully, in the coming years, they can achieve the same kind of success.

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