Schlemko, King and Kassian: the forgotten ones from the all-star teams of the millennium

Doubtful draft selections, veterans acquired at the end of their careers, reservists sought to fill holes temporarily: shady players, whose existence or stay with the Canadian we have sometimes forgotten, we have seen dozens pass through Montreal since the start of the millennium.

• Also read: Here are the CH all-star teams of the first quarter of the century

Quite a few more than star players. Moreover, if it was easy to draw up the list of the six attackers, the four defenders and the two goalkeepers who would form the two Habs all-star teams unveiled on Sunday, the same exercise is more complicated by taking the situation at face value. ‘reverse.

Which were the worst over the last 25 years? The possibilities were so numerous that it was necessary to establish some criteria. Who is most remembered for a reason other than performance? Who did the organization try to sell us the most while failing?

Again, we would have had enough candidates to form two teams of 20 players. Which made a colleague say that “all these names remind us that this organization would make its supporters swallow anything.” There is some truth in these wise words.

The choices were heartbreaking, but necessary. We present them to you.

1^re ALL-STAR TEAM

Ben Scrivens

He only stayed half a season in Montreal, playing 15 games starting in January 2016. It was brief, but enough for him to have time to imitate the mooing of a cow at the entrance to the journalists in the locker room of the Brossard sports complex. A few days later, in Chicago, Scrivens raised his arm to indicate to his defenders that a punt would be denied. Except that wasn’t the case and the Blackhawks took advantage of the ensuing confusion to score. Brother Richard Labbé, from The Pressdid not fail to put it back on his nose after the match.

David Schlemko

It was a real tornado that blew through the Canadian’s defensive brigade during the summer of 2017. Andrei Markov and Alexei Emelin, two pillars, left. Same thing for Nathan Beaulieu. Nevertheless, Marc Bergevin is brimming with confidence for the new season that is approaching. “We have a better team, especially on the blue line.” He even goes so far as to claim that David Schlemko will be the ideal partner for Shea Weber. Obviously, that never happened. Like everywhere he’s been before, Schlemko hasn’t been more than a fifth defenseman. And that was when he wasn’t in the infirmary.

Davis Drewishke

Apparently, Marc Bergevin had his eye on him for a while when he acquired him at the trade deadline in 2013. One wonders where he had seen him considering he had only played 20 matches, so far, and only 9 the previous season. Moreover, he quickly disappeared from the radar. He played nine games before being left out for the final four games of the campaign and the playoffs. Despite a new contract, he spent the next two winters in Hamilton.

Dwight King

Acquired at the trade deadline in spring 2017, he did not last long. Stanley Cup champion on two occasions with the Kings, he only played 17 games with the Canadian. From this whirlwind visit to Montreal, we will have remembered, according to the words of Claude Julien, called to comment on the usefulness of King in his training, that he was a player who “knows when to make line changes and what to do with the puck when it’s time to make line changes.”

Zack Kassian

He did not play a single regular season game with the Canadiens, but he still found an original way to leave a mark on his time in the organization. On October 4, 2015, in the middle of the preparatory calendar, he was involved in a road accident in the early morning of a drunken evening. “It’s a lack of character and judgment on his part,” says Marc Bergevin, when commenting on the event. The owners of Le Roi du Camion, who had supplied him with the vehicle, must also have been very proud of this free publicity.

Johan Witehall

When we want to illustrate the depths that the Canadian reached at the turn of the 2000s, and the number of little-known players who succeeded one another in the tricolor uniform during this period, this name and that of Juha Lind inevitably come up on the table. André Savard had claimed this Swedish striker on waivers due to a roster greatly reduced by injuries. That season, 46 players (skaters and goaltenders) played at least one game. Witehall played 26 before returning to Europe.

2^e ALL-STAR TEAM

Dustin Tokarski

Recalled at the end of the 2013-2014 season, the Saskatchewan native was the one Michel Therrien chose to send in the net, against the Rangers, to replace Carey Price, instead of Petr Budaj. Under the circumstances, he didn’t do too badly. Which quickly went to his head. You had to see him looking down on the journalistic fraternity and walking with his entourage the following season to understand him. His career only experienced a more dizzying descent. We still see him resurrected from time to time. This season, at age 35, he played six games with the Hurricanes.

Jay Leach

Claimed by the Canadian on waivers three days earlier, Jay Leach had a very specific game plan a few hours before his first match in the French uniform, on November 9, 2009. “I want to be a non-factor,” he said. he declared after morning training. He fulfilled his objective brilliantly. So much so that less than a month later, after seven matches, he had already left for other lands.

Janne Niinimaa

Bob Gainey had his helmet full of Mike Ribeiro. So he made the decision to get rid of it. It was so urgent that he did it just before the start of a preparatory match in return for this Finnish defender. Niinimaa played 41 games (which were quickly forgotten) in Montreal before returning to Europe. Ribeiro had a career spanning 1,074 games in the NHL, recording 793 points along the way.

John Scott

We will probably never know the full story of his acquisition by the Canadian in January 2016, two weeks before All-Star weekend. Was it an order from Gary Bettman who found it inconceivable that the fans voted for him or a decision from the Coyotes themselves who wanted to be able to send another representative? After stealing the show and winning the title of Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Weekend, and playing 27 games with the Canadiens’ farm club, he was invited to play a game with the Habs for services rendered.

Jiri Sekac

Expectations were high for him. After all, five other teams had eyed him before he left his native Czech Republic to agree to join the Canadiens. However, we will especially remember that he achieved an impressive score of 14 1⁄2 on the famous “beep, beep” test during the rookie camp. Oddly enough, this was the last time the media was able to witness the team’s medical tests. Maybe because we inflated our balloon too much. By the following February, he was already gone, traded for Devante Smith-Pelly.

Ben Maxwell

For 30 years, starting in the 1990s, the Canadiens’ chief recruiters often missed him during the drafts. Questionable choices have plagued the future of the team on several occasions. The selection of Ben Maxwell, in the second round of the 2006 auction, is one of the good examples. In 20 games with the Habs, he scored no points (a record for anyone who has played at least one game with the Canadian since 2000). Just behind him, at 50^e rank, the Bruins had drafted Milan Lucic.