Montreal Canadiens 5th Overall History Part 1: Pierre Bouchard
The Montreal Canadiens recieved the 5th overall pick this year, for the 8th time in their long and storied franchise. So for the summer months we are going to go over all the past 5th overall picks, from Bouchard to Reinbacher.
The Montreal Canadiens are selecting 5th overall in the 2024 NHL draft, and not matter who they pick, the future is more than likely very bright. Generally, the 5th overall pick turns out to be a quality NHL player, and Habs fans are hoping David Reinbacher and this year's pick will continue that trend.
Its still early, but 2017's 5th overall pick Elias Pettersson of the Vancouver Canucks might be the second best player of the draft (behind who was drafted right before him, Cale Makar), leading the pack in goals and points. But there have been some disappointments recently at the spot like Alex Turcotte, Michael Dal Colle and Olli Juolevi.
But there have been some very high quality players selected at 5th overall (some of whom we will talk about later in this series). Phil Kessel, Rob Neidermayer, Thomas Vanek, Bill Guerin and Blake Wheeler all had long, quality careers in the forward position, and Morgan Reilly, Petr Svoboda and Eric Brewer patrolled the blueline.
But two names tower over the others: Scott Stevens and Jaromir Jagr. Neither need any introduction. Jagr is the most productive European, and second most productive player ever. And Scott Stevens was a era defining defender as the biggest, meanest, hardest hitting defender probably ever to be seen in the NHL.
The Montreal Canadiens have selected 5th overall seven times over the years, and we will be taking a look at all of them in chronological order. So lets go all the way back to 1965, and the Montreal Canadien's first 5th overall pick: Pierre Bouchard.
The 1965 NHL Draft
Okay, so first off, the 1965 NHL draft was really weird.
It was only the 3rd NHL draft ever, and clearly the league was still working out the kinks. The biggest, and most impactful for this year's draft, change was upping the age of selection from turning 17, to turning 18. This meant that most of the higher quality prospects were already spoken for.
In fact, the Toronto Maple Leafs just didn't draft anyone that year. Which was something you could do way back then. If for some reason you don't want to draft a player, you can just defer to the next team. So that just left 5 of the Original Six teams to pick, and one AHL team.
Because this draft also had a new rule that AHL, CHL and WHL teams could make selections after the NHL teams, the Pittsburgh Hornets of the AHL got to pick. All the other teams in the AHL, CHL and WHL opted to not pick. Which leads, as far as I know, the Pittsburgh Hornets to be the only non-NHL team to make a pick in an NHL draft.
And the teams weren't wrong about the quality to be found. 10 selections, 2 NHLers. That is an 18% hit rate. Recent drafts generally go for about 35-40%. But credit to the Montreal Canadiens, they found the diamond in the rough.
Pierre Bouchard was drafted 5th overall, and last in the first round by the Montreal Canadiens. The only other NHL player, Michel Parizeau was the 10th and last pick that year of the New York Rangers, played just 58 games.
Pierre Bouchard finished with 10 times the games played (595), 8 times more goals (24), and over 100 points for a defender.
The Life and Times of Pierre Bouchard
Pierre Bouchard is a second generation hockey player, and second generation Montreal Canadien. His father was Emile "Butch" Bouchard, who played 15 seasons, all with the Canadiens, and captained the team for 8 years.
In fact, the father and son shared a teammate in Henri Richard. The Pocket Rocket's first NHL season was Emile's last, and he and Pierre played 5 seasons together. That's pretty rare outside of anyone that played with Gordie, Mark and Marty Howe.
Pierre and Emile were both defenders with a penchant for the defensive side of the game, and both backstopped the Canadiens for many years. In fact, the younger Bouchard was brought up specifically to make the team better after a disappointing season.
As Guy Lapointe, the player that started his career the same year as Bouchard, said:
"On the last day of the season, the Canadiens had to score so many goals (in order to break a tie in the standings) so they pulled their goalie out in the second period. They lost 10-2 to Chicago."
And the move worked, as the Montreal Canadiens defeated the 57-14-7 Boston Bruins in the first round on route to beating the Chicago Blackhawks and winning the Stanley Cup. It was the first of five in Bouchard's career.
As a defensive defender, Bouchard never put up fantastic numbers. He never scored more than 5 goals and 15 points in a season, but if you look at the teams he played in front of, he didn't really need to put up offensive numbers, with teammates like Jean Beliveau, Yvan Cournoyer and the Mahovolichs.
Along with goalie Ken Dryden, Bouchard locked down the defensive zone, and never finished with a negative plus/minus as a Canadien, and played a relatively clean game, never eclipsing 70 minutes of penalties in a season.
Not to say that he shied away from the rough stuff. He did have a good amount of fights that can still be found on youtube, but are a little graphic to post here. But as a bruising, defensive forward, he was the envy of many teams, which is why he ended up where he did in 1978.
Life After the Montreal Canadiens
Okay young ones, lets gather round the fire and talk about something called the waiver draft. From 1977 to 2003, the league had a draft very similar to the Seattle or Vegas expansion drafts, where players from teams were up for grabs, to try to help expansion teams become more competitive in a league that was massively expanding.
Like the expansion drafts, each team could protect a certain number of players and some players were exempt from being picked. At first it was players in their first year, and later it was changed to depend on how many games each player played. The biggest name claimed as part of this was probably Chris Osgood, or a Serge Savard in the absolute twilight of his career.
Generally, teams were given cash considerations for their lost player, but occasionally they would pick a player from the other team in a swap. This usually was held a week before the season, and was put to an end with the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The Montreal Canadiens had just won the Stanley Cup for the third straight year, and understandably, they had a surplus of players to protect, and Pierre Bouchard was left unprotected, and was subsequently selected.
Bouchard was selected by the Washington Capitals, who were one of the worst expansion teams at the time. Montreal tried to "cheat" the system by trading for Bouchard after the draft for Rod Schutt. But the league kyboshed the trade and Bouchard threatened retirement, and played just one game the following season.
Bouchard then played two full seasons in Washington, before retiring. But he didn't stay away from hockey, and our francophone readers and Quebecers might recognize him most now as a well known and well liked colour commentators for the Canadiens for years.
Well that is about it for this first installment. Join us next time for the Montreal Canadiens' next 5th overall pick: Phil Myre.
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