Canadiens: Houle Was Shark Bait

There were only a few hours left before the 1998-1999 trade deadline when Montreal Canadiens GM Rejean Houle pulled the trigger on the Vincent Damphousse trade. There's never a good moment or place to learn you've been traded, but aside from hearing about it mid-game like Mike Cammalleri, I think hearing that mid-flight has got to be right up there (pun intended). That's exactly what happened to Damphousse in a charter plane full of journalists. 

Acquired from the Edmonton Oilers in the Summer of 1992 for Shayne Corson, Brent Gilchrist and Vladimir Vujtek, Damphousse played with the Canadiens for seven seasons. In three of them, he gathered over 90 points. 

In three of his seven seasons, he lead the teams in points and in three others, he was second to Mark Recchi or Pierre Turgeon and in the final one, he was third in points when he was traded. 

He was more than a points producing machine though, he was named team captain in 1996-1997 after Turgeon was traded to the St. Louis Blues. He would wear the C until Houle decided it was in the team's best interest to trade him. 

For a second season in a row, the Canadiens were on the verge of missing the playoffs. Like the rest of the team, Damphousse had been struggling to put up points on the scoreboard and his points total was down. 

Furthermore, the captain's contract was in its last year and even though he had expressed his desire to stay in Montreal, an extension wouldn't have come cheap. However, one should remember the salary cap didn't arrive in the NHL until the 2005-2006 season, after the 2004-2005 season was lost to a lockout caused by the CBA negotiations.

It's always been hard to get a good return for rental players and things weren't any different before the new millennium kicked in. For his team captain, Houle fetched three draft picks: A fifth-round pick in the 1999 draft, a first-round pick in the 2000 draft and finally a second-round pick which could either be at the 2000 or 2001 draft with San Jose making the call before D-day in 2000. 

Those three picks yielded very little return for the Canadiens. the 1999 selection ended up being Marc-Andre Thinel who spent four years splitting his time between the AHL and the ECHL before leaving to play in France for Rouen for 14 years.

The 2000 first-round pick turned into the 16th overall selection Marcel Hossa (the wrong Hossa really). Marian's brother would end up playing 237 games in the NHL, only 59 of which were with Montreal. Solid NHLers Brooks Orpik, Justin Williams (Mr. Game 7) and Niklas Kronwall were still on the board when Montreal made that selection. Had Montreal picked one of those three, the trade wouldn't have been such a disaster. 

As for the second-round pick, it turned out to be used in 2001 and became Kiel McLeod. The center never played in the NHL, spending time in the AHL, the ECHL, Italy, Austria and Germany. 

Meanwhile, Damphousse played for the Sharks for five full seasons after finishing up the 1998-1999 campaign with the California team. San Jose signed him to a five-year deal, turning the trade into a long-term investment rather than a rent-a-player move. While his offensive output never went back to 90+ points per season, he did manage 70 points in his first full year with the Sharks and began an important part of their attack. After the 2004-2005 season, he became an unrestricted free agent and signed a contract with the Colorado Avalanche, but he never played for the team, calling time on his career after the lost season. 

I know, hindsight is always 20/20 but losing such a productive player, a leader and a French speaker for so little return was detrimental for the organization to say the least. Still, Houle was kept in post until November 2000 when he was replaced by Andre Savard, it was too late though, the damage had been done.