There sure is a lot of talk about one particular first-round pick who may or may not make the team this year after several rough stays with Montreal over the past two seasons. He is part of this week’s quiz which looks at first-round draft picks from 1995 to 2015.
It’s worth noting that in 20 years the Montreal Canadiens did not have a first-round draft pick twice: 1999 and 2008.
In 1999, General Manager Réjean Houle made the decision to trade the 1999 1st round pick for aging veteran Trevor Linden. Linden played 107 games over two seasons with Montreal before being traded, along with Danius Zubrus and a 2001 2nd round pick, to Washington for Richard Zednik, Jan Bulis, and their 2001 first-round pick. Houle’s successor André Savard was the architect of that robbery.
At the 2008 Entry Draft, GM Bob Gainey traded the first-round pick and the second-round pick in 2009 to Calgary for Alex Tanguay and a 2008 fifth-round pick. Amazingly, Tanguay only played 50 games that season, scoring 16 goals and 41 points, and then left for free agency. The fifth-round pick ended up being Maxim Trunev, who is still part of the organization, if only by name as he is unlikely to ever cross the Atlantic to play in the NHL.
