Welcome to the Montreal Canadiens‘ best trades series. In this series, we at The Hockey Writers look back at the Canadiens’ trading history with every NHL team and pick what we believe to be the best transaction between them and the other 31 organizations. This article focuses on their trade history with another one of their biggest rivals, the Boston Bruins.
The Canadiens and Bruins are two of the proudest franchises in the NHL, with vocal and passionate fans rooting them on. While the two teams have met countless times in the playoffs, they’ve also taken part in 35 trades in the last century, starting in 1925 when Sprague Cleghorn was dealt to the Bruins for $5,000. This deal kicked off the many trades between the Bruins and Canadiens but pales in comparison to the two we’ll go over today.
Canadiens Land Hall of Fame Goaltender in 1964
If the trade that took place 17 days following the 1964 NHL Amateur Draft never went down, the Bruins and Canadiens’ history may have shaped up differently in the 1970s. General manager Sam Pollock packaged Guy Allen and Paul Reid, drafted in the second and third rounds, to the Bruins for Alex Campbell and Ken Dryden. Campbell, the second-overall pick in the draft, never made it to the big stage, but Dryden quickly became one of the most successful goaltenders in Canadiens’ franchise history.
Debuting in the 1970-71 season, Dryden’s six-game stint and .957 save percentage impressed enough to earn the starting job in the playoffs. A decision that paid off as Montreal captured its 17th Stanley Cup. Backing a talented team throughout the 70s, Dryden and the Canadiens won six championships in nine years. Capping off a Hall of Fame career with five Vezina Trophy victories and a Conn Smythe, the Bruins faithful won’t live this one down any time soon.
Related: Montreal Canadiens’ Best Trades With the Toronto Maple Leafs
The Canadiens and Bruins made one more minor deal in August 1964, but following the sequence of events that led to Montreal’s dominance for a decade, the two teams would not make another trade for almost 37 years. When they did, it was a deal that benefited the Canadiens more than it did their rival.
Canadiens Addition by Subtraction with Weinrich Deal
In 1998, Eric Weinrich came to Montreal in a package deal that included Jeff Hackett and Alain Nasreddine. At nearly 32, he provided some stability and veteran experience on the Canadiens’ blue line and did well by posting 29 points in 77 games during the 1999-00 season. Unfortunately, a proposed three-year deal worth $7.5 million fell through as the defenseman leaned towards testing the free agency market.
Not willing to lose him for nothing, the Canadiens sent Weinrich to the Bruins for fellow defenseman Patrick Traverse. Essentially a wash on paper, Traverse ended up sticking around with the Canadiens for much longer, while Weinrich’s tenure in Boston lasted 22 games. What makes this trade favorable for Montreal was the money they freed up to sign Doug Gilmour and acquire complementary pieces in Joe Juneau, Stephane Quintal, and Andreas Dackell. To add salt to the wound, not only did the Canadiens snap their three-year streak of missing the playoffs, but they also defeated the Bruins in the first round in six games.
Canadiens’ Best Trade With the Bruins
Beyond a doubt, the Dryden trade of 1964 will go down as the absolute best transaction with the Bruins, and one could argue that it’s the greatest among any of the teams. His pedigree in just eight years speaks for itself, and there hasn’t been a goaltender since who has measured up to that level of success. Though his time was short in the NHL, his six Stanley Cup rings and Hall of Fame honor place him as one of the greatest goaltenders in NHL history, and he was acquired for two players who never dressed a game with the Bruins.
