The year was 2009, and after 13 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, it was time for captain and fan favourite, Saku Koivu, to begin the next chapter of his career. Koivu was the face of the franchise ever since he was named captain of the team prior to the 1999-2000 season. It was not just his play on the ice that endeared him to fans. While that was part of it, the constant battles he had to overcome just to get onto the ice made the fans fall in love with him. In the offseason before the 2009-10 season, the Canadiens changed their entire identity, letting their stars leave in free agency, replacing them with expensive free agents and mortgaging some of their future to acquire an already established star. While the Canadiens did make the Eastern Conference Final in 2010, the moves made to replace Koivu and cast were largely disappointing.
What Saku Koivu meant to the Canadiens and Montreal
The story of Koivu and the Canadiens together started at the 1993 NHL Entry Draft, when Montreal selected him with the 21st overall pick. Koivu was coming off a season in which he recorded 10 points in 46 games as a rookie with TPS Turku in Finland. He spent the next two seasons following the draft with TPS Turku, and his offensive numbers exploded. In 92 games, Koivu scored 50 goals and added 77 assists, helping lead TPS Turku to a championship victory in the 1994-95 season, winning the Jari Kurri trophy as playoff MVP in the process. It was the perfect way to cap off his time in Finland before joining the Canadiens in the 1995-96 season.
Koivu made an impact right away as a rookie, recording 20 goals and 25 assists in 82 games, finishing fourth in rookie scoring. In his second season, he looked like he was blossoming into the next Canadiens superstar. Koivu had 13 goals and 25 assists in the Canadiens' first 30 games before a knee injury sidelined him for over 30 games. His 38 points were near the top of the league leaders prior to the injury, but still finished out the season strong following his return, ending the year with 56 points in 50 games. Koivu was the future of the Canadiens, Montreal knew it, and that was reflected in 1999 when Vincent Damphousse left the team.
Damphousse served as the Canadiens' captain from 1996 until he was traded in March of 1999. When it came to naming his replacement, there was only one real option. In September of 1999, Koivu, now 24 years old, was named the 27th captain in Canadiens history. He became the first European-born captain in franchise history. Koivu spent 10 seasons as captain, tying Jean Beliveau’s record as the longest-serving in franchise history, and while he did not win a Stanley Cup like the Canadiens' iconic number 4, he was beloved as if he had.
Koivu dealt with a ton of injuries during his time with the Canadiens, but that was nothing compared to what he went through during the 2001-02 season. On September 6, 2001, Koivu was diagnosed with Burkitt's lymphoma, a non-Hodgkin lymphoma. He was expected to miss the entire season, but Koivu had other plans. Koivu beat cancer, and with just games to go into the season, he made his return, which was followed by an eight-minute standing ovation. He did not miss a beat, recording two assists in the Canadiens final three games of the season, and was one of the team’s best players in the playoffs, recording 10 points in 12 games.
If beating cancer was not enough hardship to go through in one's career, Koivu had to battle back from a nearly career-ending eye injury in 2006. During a game against the Carolina Hurricanes in April of 2006, Justin Williams attempted to lift Koivu’s stick but missed, and the errant stick caught the Canadiens captain under his visor and hit his eye. He was rushed to the hospital and later underwent surgery to repair a detached retina. There was a chance he would never see out of that eye ever again, and while he did lose a degree of peripheral vision, he was not going to let that halt his playing career.
Not only did he not let that stop him, but Koivu returned the next season better than ever. He set career highs in goals (22), assists (53), and points (75). However, despite his excellent play, the Canadiens finished just two points out of a playoff spot. That is why Koivu will always be viewed as an adopted son of Montreal, not just for his play on the ice, but because he was a fighter.
Were the Canadiens right in letting Koivu go?
The identity of the Canadiens changed in 2009. It was not just Koivu leaving. Alexei Kovalev, Chris Higgins, Mike Komisarek, and Alex Tanguay also left the team during that offseason. The Canadiens brought in Michael Cammalleri, Brian Gionta, Hal Gill, and Jaroslav Spacek to replace the players lost in free agency. However, the direct replacement for Koivu, Scott Gomez, was traded for in a move that goes down as one of the worst in franchise history. Gomez played three seasons with the Canadiens, but after failing to rediscover the form he had with the New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers, he was bought out of the remainder of his contract. Koivu, on the other hand, played five more seasons, all with the Anaheim Ducks, and remained a consistent performer despite being in the twilight of his career.
Gionta was named captain the year after Koivu’s departure, and while he was a serviceable captain, he did not carry the same weight as the player he was replacing, who tied the franchise record as the longest-serving captain in team history. Looking back nearly two decades later, the Canadiens never really replaced what Koivu meant to the team, and it likely was not until Nick Suzuki took over as captain in 2022 that they got another leader like him. Koivu was more than just a player in Montreal. He embodied what it meant to put on the bleu, blanc, et rouge sweater. Koivu deserved to be a Canadiens player for life, and letting him go was one of the biggest disservices to a franchise legend in team history.
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