The Montreal Canadiens have more Hall of Fame members than any other team in the history of the game.
There really isn't another team that can show up the Canadiens when it comes to great players in their history. However, for a brief time at least, the Philadelphia Flyers had a handful of great former Canadiens on their team.
There was a reminder of that on the weekend when the Flyers were playing the Boston Bruins. Mark Recchi was being inducted into the Flyers Hall of Fame, the team that he was traded to after parts of five great seasons with the Canadiens.
Recchi was shipped to the Flyers for Dainius Zubrus and a second round pick in 1999 and came back to bite the Habs a couple of times. He helped the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Canadiens in the first round of the 2006 Stanley Cup Playoffs before winning the Stanley Cup and doubled down when he helped the Boston Bruins beat the Habs in the opening round of the 2011 playoffs before winning yet another Stanley Cup.
Of course, it was also a reminder that the Canadiens should not have made the trade to acquire Recchi in the first place.
He arrived in Montreal during the 1995 lockout shortened season with John LeClair and Eric Desjardins going the other way. Both of those players were previously inducted in the Flyers Hall of Fame before Recchi joined them on the weekend.
LeClair and Desjardins helped the Flyers reach the Stanley Cup Final in 1997 and had a five year run before the 2005 lockout, with Recchi as well, where the Flyers were among the best teams in the league each year though they did not make it back to the final round of the postseason.
All three players had sensational careers and were all excellent with the Flyers. Unfortunately it was after (and before for Recchi) they played with the Canadiens. The middle to late 1990's were not the best time to be a fan of the Canadiens and seeing the list of Flyers Hall of Fame members was yet another reminder of that dark time in Habs history.