The Montreal Canadiens are one of the most storied teams in National Hockey League history. They have won more Stanley Cup titles than any other team, by a wide margin, and have players that played for the organization stenciled all over the major individual awards.
One player that had a short, but productive, stint with the Canadiens was Pierre Turgeon. He had a long NHL career with six different teams including the Buffalo Sabres, New York Islanders, St. Louis Blues, Dallas Stars, Colorado Avalanche and Canadiens.
Turgeon, a native of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec was productive everywhere he went in his 19 season NHL career. He piled up 1327 points in 1294 career games which is an incredible number. He ranks 34th all time in points in NHL history and his 515 career goals rank 41st.
His time in Montreal came down to parts of two seasons, and one full season in 1995-96. He was fantastic the whole time, scoring 50 goals and 127 points in 104 games with the Canadiens sweater on. He arrived during the lockout shortened 1995 season when the team was struggling. In a somewhat controversial trade at the time, fan favorite Kirk Muller and Mathieu Schneider were dealt to the Islanders for Turgeon and Vladimir Malakhov.
Turgeon was traded less than two years later to the Blues with Craig Conroy and Rory Fitzpatrick for Shayne Corson and Murray Baron.
Though his stay was short, he left his mark as he was the captain of the team when they played their final game at the Montreal Forum. He also had 0.74 assists per game which is second best all-time in Canadiens history behind just Guy Lafleur. His 1.221 points per game with the Canadiens is the third best in franchise history behind Lafleur and Newsy Lalonde.
He thanked teammate Patrick Roy and general manager Rejean Houle during his speech, but his time speaking on the Canadiens, like his time playing with them, was brief. He didn’t have a lot of time to begin with, so that makes sense.
Turgeon was first eligible for the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010. His 1327 career points were the most by a player not elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame when eligible, but that is no longer the case as the former Canadiens captain takes his rightful spot in the hallowed shrine of hockey.
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