PHT Time Machine: NHL expansion teams build Montreal dynasty

By Adam GretzAug 1, 2018, 2:41 PM EDT

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Throughout the summer we will be taking a look back at some significant moments in NHL history. This is the PHT Time Machine. Today we look back to when a bunch of expansion teams unintentionally helped build one of the NHL’s great dynasties in Montreal.

You may think of the present day Montreal Canadiens as a dysfunctional mess of a franchise without much in the way of a long-term plan, producing a consistently disappointing on-ice product.

This, of course, was not always the case as the 24 Stanley Cup banners hanging in their rafters illustrate. You don’t get that many championships by being dumb.

Many of those championships are the direct result of a long-term plan by former long-time general manager Sam Pollock that was not only ahead of its time, but feasted on the — let’s say — ignorance of the teams around him.

This is the story of how a bunch of expansion teams helped the Montreal Canadiens build one of the NHL’s greatest dynasties.

The Background

Throughout 1960s the NHL went through several changes that would forever change the look of the league.

Among those changes…

The amateur draft: Starting in 1963 the NHL introduced the amateur draft as a means of giving every team equal opportunity to land young, star players. Prior to the draft NHL teams would “sponsor” junior teams and players, limiting which teams they could play for once they were ready to turn pro.
Expansion: Then in 1967 the league doubled in size going from six teams to 12 with the additions of the Pittsburgh Penguins, Philadelphia Flyers, Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, St. Louis Blues, and Oakland Seals.

The Montreal Canadiens would use these two changes to their advantage to help build one of the greatest teams ever assembled.

Here is how they did it.

The Plan And The Trades

Let’s just start with this: Pollock had a long-term vision for the Canadiens and was often times thinking multiple years in advance. While the rest of the league was playing candy land, he was playing an elaborate game of chess.

Starting in 1968 Pollock began executing a plan that would see him stockpile as many future draft picks — specifically first-round picks — as he could, with those picks usually coming from one of the new expansion teams that were simply trying to make a name for themselves and land some established players. They were not only trying to get established veterans, they also probably did not fully understand the value of draft picks.

Between 1968 and 1973 Pollock traded veteran talent off of the Canadiens roster and acquired 14 future first-round draft picks from other NHL teams, often times multiple years in advance.

A quick run down of those trades:

May 21, 1968: Traded Norm Ferguson and Stan Fuller to Oakland for Wally Boyer, Alain Caron, Oakland’s 1968 first-round pick and its 1970 first-round pick.
June 10, 1968: Traded Danny Grant, Claude Larose to Minnesota for Minnesota’s 1972 first-round pick and 1973 first-round pick.
June 11, 1968: Traded Gerry Desjardins to Los Angeles for Los Angeles’ 1969 and 1972 first-round draft picks.
June 12, 1968: Traded the rights to Carol Vadnais in the waiver draft to Oakland for Oakland’s 1973 first-round pick and its 1973 second-round pick.
May 22, 1970: Traded its own 1970 first-round pick and Ernie Hicke to Oakland in for Oakland’s 1971 first-round pick.
August 22, 1972: Traded Terry Harper to Los Angeles for Los Angeles’ second-round pick in 1974, its first-round pick in 1975, its third-round pick in 1975, and its first-round pick in 1976.
May 15, 1973: The Canadiens used the first-round pick it had acquired from Oakland in 1968 (the No. 2 overall pick) to trade back two different times, accumulating future first-round picks from Atlanta/Calgary in 1977 and St. Louis in 1975 as part of the trades. On this same day they also traded the first-round pick acquired from Minnesota in 1968 to the Vancouver Canucks for Vancouver’s 1974 first-round pick.
May 29, 1973: Traded Bob J. Murcoch and Randy Rota to the Los Angeles Kings in exchange for the Kings’ first-round pick in 1974. On the same day he traded Chuck Arnason to Atlanta/Calgary for the Flames’ first-round pick in 1974.

As mentioned above, that is 14 future first-round draft picks. How unique was this strategy at the time? Just consider that during the same time period between 1968 and 1973 the rest of the teams in the NHL only traded for four future first-round draft picks, and three of those trades were made by the Boston Bruins.

Nobody else in the league was looking this far ahead or valued draft picks this highly.

Part of the reason the Canadiens were able to make all of these trades for future picks was due to the fact their team was already loaded with talent, and there was always the risk that the WHA could poach some of that talent away from them.

One of the most intriguing trends in all of those moves is the number of future first-round picks Montreal received from the Oakland/California franchise.

Between 1968 and 1970 the Seals were run by Frank Selke Jr., a former long-time employee of the Canadiens. Of the 16 trades he made while in charge of the Seals, six of them involved the Canadiens, far more than any other team in the league at that time.

Those trades involved Montreal collecting five first-round draft picks from the Seals, including four future picks years down the road. Montreal was the only team he traded any draft pick to. If you are a conspiracy theorist that track record of trades is, at the very least, eye-opening given Selke’s history working for the Canadiens.

The Kings were the other team that seemed to have no problem trading future assets to Montreal.

The long-term results would prove to be disastrous for those teams and forever change the NHL.

The Aftermath

Not all of those future draft picks amounted to anything of significance, but the ones that did were certainly impactful.

So what did Montreal get out of those picks?

A future scoring champion and MVP: The trade that worked out the best was May 22, 1970 trade that saw Montreal get Oakland’s 1971 first-round pick. The Seals finished the 1970-71 season with the NHL’s worst record, meaning that draft pick would be the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. The top prospect that entered the NHL that year was Guy Lafleur. Lafleur would go on to be one of the NHL’s best players, win three scoring titles, and be one of the key building blocks for the Canadiens’ run of five Stanley Cups throughout the 1970s, including the four-peat between 1976 and 1979.

The 1970 first-round pick that Oakland received in return was used to select Chris Oddleifson, who would never play a game for the team. Instead he was traded to Boston for Ivan Boldirev who would have two okay seasons with the team before being traded to Chicago. Hicke, the other asset acquired for that pick, also had two decent seasons before being lost in the 1972 expansion draft.

It is also worth nothing that along with getting Lafleur with the top pick in 1971, the Canadiens also used a second-round pick that they had acquired a year earlier from the Kings (in exchange for Dick Duff) to select Hall of Fame defenseman Larry Robinson.

Robinson and Lafleur were two of the best players of all-time.

The game’s best shutdown forward: May 15, 1973 was also a big day for Pollock and the Canadiens when they used the No. 2 pick (acquired five years earlier, also from Selke Jr.) to move back to No. 8 thanks to a pair of trades with Atlanta and St. Louis. Along with acquiring the future draft picks in 1975 and 1977 they used the No. 8 overall pick to select Bob Gainey, who would go on to be one of the best defensive forwards of all time, winning four Selke Trophies as well as a Conn Smythe award as playoff MVP.

The initial return on the trades and the pick already had Montreal looking ahead to maybe use its future picks to trade up for Mark Howe (never happened) and how good Gainey already was defensively.

From the Montreal Gazette:

Gainey won five Stanley Cups with the Canadiens (including four in the 1970s) and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992.

This sequence of trades also landed them Mark Napier (No. 10 overall in 1977, one of the picks acquired from Atlanta in the trade for the No. 2 overall pick in 1973) who would go on to play six years in Montreal, including as a member of the 1979 Stanley Cup winning team.

Another Hall of Famer: The Canadiens used the No. 4 overall pick in 1972, acquired as part of the 1968 trade that sent Gerry Desjardins to Los Angeles, to select Steve Shutt. Shutt would go on to play 14 seasons with the Canadiens, scoring 424 goals, including a league-best 60 during the 1976-77 season. He won five Stanley Cups with the Canadiens in the 1970s and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993.

Another four-time champion The 1973 trade that saw Montreal trade Murdoch and Rota, two marginal NHLers, to the Kings for their 1974 first-round pick resulted in the Canadiens selecting Mario Tremblay, who would go on to score 258 goals in 12 years with the team before suffering a career-ending injury 1986. He was a part of all four Stanley Cup winning teams between 1976 and 1979.

On a team level, the Canadiens were the most dominant team of the decade.

Between 1971 and 1980 their 508 wins were the most of any team in the NHL, and were one of just two teams (Boston being the other) to win at least 425 games and one of only three (Boston and Philadelphia) to win more than 400.

They also won six Stanley Cups, including the four in a row between 1976 and 1979.

Probably none of it happens with Lafleur, Robinson, Gainey, Shutt, and Tremblay, a core of players that were only acquired due to long-term outlook and plan of Pollock, and the lack of foresight by some of the NHL’s newest expansion teams.

(Stick tap to NHL Trade Tracker for much of the trade information)

More PHT Time Machine:
• Remembering the Jaromir Jagr Trade Nobody Won
• When the Blues skipped the NHL draft

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Adam Gretz is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @AGretz.

Vegas Golden Knights come back to beat Florida Panthers in Game 1 of Stanley Cup Final

Associated PressJun 4, 2023, 12:40 AM EDT

Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

LAS VEGAS – Back in the Stanley Cup Final for the first time in five years and trailing the Florida Panthers less than 10 minutes into Game 1, the Vegas Golden Knights sent a very clear message.

“We were ready,” Jonathan Marchessault said.

Ready and dominant. Vegas rallied from an early deficit, got the go-ahead goal from Zach Whitecloud with just over 13 minutes left and arguably the best save of the playoffs from Adin Hill and beat Florida 5-2 Saturday night to take the lead in the best-of-seven series.

“We kept out composure, and it was good,” said Marchessault, one of six original Knights players left from the start of the franchise in 2017 who scored the tying goal in the first period. “We just wanted to play the right way and be disciplined, and tonight we were able to be the better team.”

Whitecloud put Vegas ahead, a crucial penalty kill followed and captain Mark Stone scored an insurance goal that was reviewed for a high stick and confirmed. Reilly Smith sealed it with an empty-netter to make the score look more lopsided than the game.

The combination of that offense and Hill’s 33 saves put Vegas up after a feisty opener between Sun Belt teams who wasted little time getting acquainted with big hits during play and plenty of post-whistle pushing and shoving.

“It’s exactly what we expected,” said Vegas defenseman Shea Theodore, who scored his first goal of the playoffs and ended a 27-game drought dating to March 7. “That’s how they wanted to play. We were just trying not to play into it.”

That stuff is just beginning. Game 2 is Monday in Las Vegas.

Before the Panthers even get a chance to respond, they ratcheted up the physical play late after falling behind by two. A handful of penalties resulting from a fracas with 4:24 remaining left the Florida bench well short.

The outcome was determined long before that.

After falling behind on a short-handed goal by Eric Staal that sucked the life out of the crowd of 18,432, the Golden Knights rallied for their ninth comeback win this playoffs. Marchessault – known since arriving in Las Vegas for scoring big goals – answered before the end of the first period.

Early in the second, Hill made a desperation stick save to rob Nick Cousins of what would have been a sure goal. The save was reminiscent of the one Washington’s Braden Holtby made against Vegas – in the same crease – five years ago.

“That’s an unreal save – it’s a game-changer,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You need those saves at key moments.”

Giving up a tying goal to Anthony Duclair with 10.2 seconds left in the second did not slow the Golden Knights’ momentum much. Whitecloud’s goal, with two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky screened and unable to see, fired up fans once again.

Bobrovsky, in the final for the first time, downplayed any reason for concern after stopping 29 of 34 shots and losing for just the second time in 12 games this postseason.

“I played a good game,” Bobrovsky said. “I played a solid game. They created some good chances other than goals. They had lots of good scoring chances, and that was fun.”

Part of the fun came when play was stopped.

Less than 10 minutes in, Hill was none too happy about Nick Cousins crashing into his crease and gave the agitating Panthers winger a jab that incited a handful of scrums. During the second period, Matthew Tkachuk let Vegas’ Nic Hague know he wasn’t thrilled about a hit in the corner on Cousins and a collision with Brandon Montour after the whistle.

“If guys are going to come in my crease and try to push me around, I’m going to stand my own ground,” Hill said. “I’m not going to do anything too crazy or get too wild, but, yeah, I’ve got to stand up for myself.”

Florida coach Paul Maurice, back in the final for the first time since 2001, displayed a similarly calm demeanor as he did all the way back in the first round, when his team fell behind 1-0 then 3-1 to NHL-best Boston before winning in seven.

“It’s going to be tight,” Maurice said. “Everybody breathe.”

The Golden Knights are in the final for the second time in six years of existence, five years after making it in their inaugural season. Vegas won the opener in 2018 and lost the series to Washington in five games.

The Panthers are back playing for the Cup for the first time since 1996. Florida got swept by Colorado in that final 27 years ago, 18 months before Tkachuk, the team’s leading scorer this playoffs, was born.

It’s the 66th different matchup of teams in the Cup final in NHL history and the 46th since the expansion era began in 1967-68. This is the first time since Washington-Vegas and just the third time since the turn of the century in which the final features two teams who have never won the league’s championship.

Penguins name former Maple Leafs GM Kyle Dubas as director of hockey operations

Associated PressJun 1, 2023, 2:21 PM EDT

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PITTSBURGH (AP) Kyle Dubas wanted to take a breath and take a break after being fired as the general manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Then the Pittsburgh Penguins called.

The break ended shortly thereafter.

Dubas joined the Penguins as the team’s president of hockey operations, less than two weeks after a somewhat ugly exit from Toronto following a second-round playoff loss to Florida.

The 37-year-old Dubas goes from one type of hockey crucible to another. In Toronto, he was tasked with helping the Maple Leafs emerge from two decades of postseason futility. In Pittsburgh, his mission will be to prop open the Stanley Cup window for Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang a little longer.

All three are 35 or older and haven’t won a playoff series since 2018. Yet Dubas believes strongly the issue isn’t the age of the franchise’s core but deficiencies elsewhere on the roster. Dubas replaces Brian Burke, who was fired along with general manager Ron Hextall in April after the Penguins failed to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

“I heard a lot of people that were highly skeptical of the team’s ability to contend here and the way I view it, if the people want to bet against (Crosby, Letang and Malkin) they can go ahead and do so,” Dubas said. “But I’m going to bet on them and go with them here. I think it is a group that’s capable of contending to win a championship.”

Crosby and Malkin were excellent for much of last season and Letang showed remarkable resiliency while dealing with multiple setbacks, including a stroke and the death of his father. Yet save for a 14-2-2 stretch in November and December, the Penguins struggled to find consistency and ultimately stumbled down the stretch to snap the longest active playoff streak in major North American Sports.

While the Penguins do have $20 million in cap space and the 14th overall pick in this month’s NHL draft, significant changes or upgrades could be difficult in the short term.

Dubas inherits a team that was the oldest in the NHL last season and is littered with question marks, particularly in goal and the forward group outside of Crosby, Malkin and Jake Guentzel.

Two-time All-Star goaltender Tristan Jarry will become a free agent this summer and was beset by injuries over the second half of the season. Forward Jason Zucker, who served as the emotional sparkplug for long stretches, is also scheduled to hit the open market and may have priced himself out of town.

Pittsburgh also has several aging players with full or partial no-movement clauses, including 38-year-old forward Jeff Carter, 30-year-old Bryan Rust and 35-year-old defenseman Jeff Petry.

“I think that those are obviously very real situations, everyone knows that they exist,” Dubas said. “To me the effect on it … is what we can add in terms of depth pieces? What we can add in terms of younger players? That’ll be the real key.”

Dubas does plan to hire a general manager to fill the vacancy created when Hextall was let go after a short but largely unfruitful tenure. Dubas will serve as the GM on an interim basis until early July.

Dubas comes to Pittsburgh after nine seasons with the Maple Leafs, including the last five as general manager. Toronto won a postseason series for the first time since 2004 this spring before falling to the Florida Panthers in the Eastern Conference semifinals in five games.

Shortly after the Maple Leafs’ playoff exit, Dubas said that he wasn’t sure if he wanted to remain in Toronto. His contract was set to expire on June 30, but team president Kyle Shanahan opted to pre-emptively fire Dubas instead. Toronto hired former Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving as Dubas’ replacement.

Dubas helped build the Maple Leafs into a regular-season power during his tenure. Toronto set single-season records for wins and points, and went 221-109-42 in his tenure. Dubas also didn’t shy away from big moves – he fired Stanley Cup-winning coach Mike Babcock in November 2019 and replaced him with Sheldon Keefe – but struggled to find the right mix in the playoffs until this spring.

In the end, advancing beyond the first round for the first time since 2004 wasn’t enough for Dubas to remain in Toronto.

He joked he was maybe a little “too honest” during his season-ending press conference with the Maple Leafs when he expressed reservations about returning. Shanahan’s abrupt decision to move on came as a bit of a surprise, and Dubas planned to take some time to hit the reset button before looking for another job.

Yet the Penguins – who’d already been given clearance by the Maple Leafs to interview Dubas – provided a compelling reason to speed up the timetable. Dubas’ due diligence included speaking to Crosby and longtime coach Mike Sullivan to take the pulse of a leadership group that remains firmly in place.

Dubas called them “some of the best competitors” in hockey. Competitors that have – for one reason or another – been unable to recapture the magic of their runs to back-to-back Cups in 2016 and 2017.

Time is running out for Crosby to put his name on the Cup for a fourth time in a career that will almost certainly end in the Hall of Fame. Dubas knows he’ll be judged in part on whether he can make that happen. After taking more than six weeks of searching before landing on Dubas, Fenway Sports Group Chairman Tom Werner believes Dubas is up to the challenge.

“Our philosophy is giving Kyle and his associates the best possible resources to win,” Werner said. “Kyle’s been very articulate today about his path to success … we’re very confident that Kyle will execute the plan he’s articulated to us.”

Seattle Kraken sign GM Ron Francis to 3-year extension through 2026-27 season

Associated PressJun 1, 2023, 11:55 AM EDT

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SEATTLE — Ron Francis was initially approached about extending his stay as the general manager of the Seattle Kraken back in the winter, but putting finality to the decision took longer than expected.

The Kraken kept winning and pushed what was mostly a formality to a secondary need until after Seattle’s unexpected playoff run finally ended.

“At that point it was kind of verbally done, just kind of a few little small details. And then we get into the playoffs and busy and it kind of got put on the back burner and I didn’t want it to be a distraction with the team and where they were at,” Francis said.

That finality came when the Kraken announced Francis had signed a three-year extension through the 2026-27 season. Francis originally signed a five-year deal when he became the first GM in franchise history back in 2019 and the new contract will kick in starting with the 2024-25 season.

“I’ll never forget the day that he said, ‘Yes, I’m ready to do this,’” Kraken CEO Tod Leiweke said. “But today is another great day for our fans because not only did he come and build, he is going to stay here and continue to build this franchise.”

Seattle reached the second round of the NHL playoffs in its second year of existence, following a challenging first year where it underachieved and was among the worst teams in the league.

But Francis navigated through that difficult first season and helped land the pieces that turned Seattle into a playoff team in the second year without mortgaging future opportunities or putting the Kraken into challenging salary cap situations.

“He has been the leader that’s gotten us to where we are today. And he is the leader to take us to the next level,” Seattle co-owner Samantha Holloway said.

Seattle is the second stop for Francis as an executive after spending seven seasons in the front office of the Carolina Hurricanes. Francis started as director of hockey operations before becoming the general manager in 2014. Francis was let go by the Hurricanes after the 2018 season.

Seattle jumped at the chance to bring the Hall of Fame player in to lead the front office. Seattle’s expansion season was a major underachievement with the Kraken going 27-49-6 and finishing last in the Pacific Division with 60 points. But Francis was able to move veteran players to stockpile draft picks and left enough salary cap room to make some key moves entering the second season.

Seattle signed free agent forward Andre Burakovksy, traded for winger Oliver Bjorkstrand and inserted rookie Matty Beniers into the lineup on Seattle’s top line from the first day of the season. The results on the ice couldn’t be argued. Seattle went 46-28-8 and reached 100 points, knocked off defending Stanley Cup champion Colorado in the first round of the playoffs before falling to Dallas in seven games in the conference semifinals.

“It’s been a real team effort. I’m sitting up here today and they’re saying good things about me, but it’s a much bigger picture than just me,” Francis said. “I’m excited to be here for a few more years and hopefully everybody’s opinion doesn’t change, but we’re going to stick to the plan and continue building it the right way so we can be a great franchise for multiple years.”

Francis also stuck with coach Dave Hakstol after that difficult first season. He may be the next in line for a contract extension from the team after a season where he was recognized as a finalist for the Jack Adams Award for top coach in the league.

Maple Leafs hire Brad Treliving as team’s new general manager

Associated PressMay 31, 2023, 4:00 PM EDT

Sergei Belski-USA TODAY Sports

TORONTO — Brad Treliving has a new job.

And the Maple Leafs have a new plan.

Treliving was hired as Toronto’s general manager less than two weeks after firing Kyle Dubas.

The 53-year-old Treliving left the Calgary Flames in April following nine seasons that included five playoff appearances and two 100-point seasons.

“Brad brings a wealth of knowledge from his years of experience as a general manager and hockey executive in Calgary, Arizona and beyond,” Leafs president Brendan Shanahan said in a statement. “He has earned tremendous respect amongst his peers throughout his years in the NHL and has built excellent relationships at all levels within the game.”

Treliving joins the Leafs at a crucial juncture in the wake of Shanahan’s stunning dismissal of Dubas on May 19.

The Original Six franchise, whose Stanley Cup drought stands at 56 years, won a playoff series for the first time in nearly two decades with a victory over the Tampa Bay Lightning this spring, but then lost to the Eastern Conference champion Florida Panthers in five games.

Dubas, who had been Toronto’s GM since 2018 and didn’t have a contract beyond June 30, suggested at an end of season news conference May 15 he wasn’t sure he wanted to remain in the role – at least in part because of the stress on his young family.

A roller coaster five days followed, with Shanahan ultimately firing the 37-year-old Dubas despite previously wanting to keep his GM, and the now-unemployed executive eventually indicating to his boss he wished to stay.

Treliving is the third GM – joining Dubas and Hall of Famer Lou Lamoriello – hired in Toronto by Shanahan, whose so-called “Shanaplan” aimed at getting the storied franchise back on its feet when he came on board in 2014 has seen unparalleled regular-season success, but just that one series victory in eight attempts.

“I’m thrilled to join an Original Six team and recognize how much the Maple Leafs mean to this community,” Treliving said. “This is a very exciting day for my family and I.”

Treliving has a lot to deal with as he settles into his new office at Scotiabank Arena.

Treliving, who served in the Phoenix Coyotes’ front office for seven seasons before arriving in Calgary, will have to decide the future of head coach Sheldon Keefe, while stars Auston Matthews and William Nylander can sign contract extensions as of July 1.

Matthews and Mitch Marner have full no-movement clauses ready to kick in the same day. Nylander will have a 10-team list.

The NHL draft is also set for the end of June in Nashville, Tennessee, while the Leafs have 12 roster players primed to hit free agency at noon EDT on July 1.

The Flames, who missed the playoffs this season, won the Pacific Division in 2021-22 under Treliving before falling to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round.

Johnny Gaudreau then stunned the organization by leaving Calgary for the Columbus Blue Jackets in free agency last summer. Fellow star forward Matthew Tkachuk added another wrinkle by informing the team he didn’t plan to re-sign.

Treliving subsequently dealt the winger to Florida as part of a package that included forward Jonathan Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar heading to southern Alberta.

Huberdeau then signed an eight-year, $84 million contract extension with the Flames that kicks in next season.

Tkachuk, a Conn Smythe Trophy candidate as playoff MVP, and the Panthers open the Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights.

Despite the departures of Gaudreau and Tkachuk, the Flames looked like contenders ahead of the 2022-23 season.

The acquisition of Huberdeau and the signing of center Nazem Kadri was expected to fill the void left by Gaudreau and Tkachuk, but the mix wasn’t right for a group led by hard-nosed coach Darryl Sutter.

Huberdeau and Kadri finished well off their career-high points totals of the previous season – the former went from 115 with Florida to 55 in Calgary – while subpar goaltending was an issue much of the season.

Treliving now turns his attention to Toronto.

Just like last summer, he has lots of work to do.