Five Worst Montreal Canadiens Trade Deadline Deals Ever

The Cristobal Huet Trade

The Montreal Canadiens had one of their most surprising seasons ever in 2007-08. They had missed the playoffs the previous season, by a single point, but were not expected to be a fantastic team all of a sudden.

But then they were. A resurgence from Alex Kovalev as well as breakout offensive performances from players like Tomas Plekanec, Mark Streit and Andrei Kostitsyn all of a sudden made the Canadiens a deep and high scoring team.

They were cruising near the top of the Eastern Conference all season and actually finished first overall in the conference at the end of the season. But, it wasn't because of any trade deadline additions that put them over the top.

In fact, the Canadiens acted like sellers at the deadline in 2008. Though there were rumors suggesting they were in on players like Mats Sundin, Vincent Lecavalier and Marian Hossa, they ultimately... traded away starting goaltender Cristobal Huet.

That was all as they did not acquire a single player during the season via trade. Instead they just moved out Huet who was having a solid season, and would be sensational down the stretch for the Washington Capitals. In return, the Canadiens received a second round draft pick.

They ultimately turned the crease over to 20 year old Carey Price who had a strong rookie season but struggled in the postseason. Obviously his career turned out okay, but he was not ready to carry a team through a playoff grind at that point in his career.

Huet was not a seasoned veteran of dozens of playoff series, but he was in his third consecutive strong season and would have helped the team in the playoffs when Price stumbled. Instead, they landed a second round pick that they flipped a year later to get Mathieu Schneider.