5 random players you forgot were on the Montreal Canadiens

Here are five NHL legends with uneventful Montreal Canadiens tenures that you forgot about.

Every glory-laden chapter of the Montreal Canadiens chronicles is defined, in no small part, by a goaltender.

Georges Vezina, George Hainsworth, Bill Durnan, Jacques Plante, Gump Worsley, Ken Dryden, and Patrick Roy all made substantial entries, if not the entirety of their respective Hall of Fame resumes in Montreal. Within seven decades, those seven stoppers combined to bolster all 23 of the franchise’s championships in the NHL era.

Is it any wonder, then, that netminders also paradoxically stand out through their obscurity on the Habs all-time roster?

The following five NHL retirees have ornate goaltending transcripts of their own. But they were with Montreal for either too short or too lean of a time for both parties.

Two of those goalies barely inked any ice time for the Habs before and/or after building their legend with another franchise. That along with their successors in the Canadiens crease kicked instant ice chips over their bleu, blanc, et rouge legacy, if such a thing existed to being with.

Another three came through after Montreal’s most recent title in 1993. In terms of the mark they left amidst the ensuing drought, let’s just say they are not Jose Theodore or Carey Price.

These five did, however, variously star for a fellow Original Six team, one or more regional rivals, an expansion franchise inaugurated after the Habs’ last banner year, or clubs that no longer exist.

The alphabetical leadoff achieved everything on the top-tier goaltending legends checklist except for a championship. His original teammates are largely responsible for that one shortage of fulfillment.

Montreal Canadiens: Tony Esposito

Undrafted out of Michigan Tech, Esposito plugged in the minors for one year, then split 1968-69 between Montreal and the Central League’s Houston Apollos.

But after trying him for 13 games, the Canadiens let Esposito go in the offseason’s intra-league draft. Rogie Vachon was the incumbent, and another college-educated prodigy, the aforementioned Dryden of Cornell, would soon supplant him.

While Dryden — who even succeeded Esposito as No. 29 on Montreal’s roster — starred for the Habs for most of the ’70s, Esposito logged 15 legendary seasons in Chicago.

One year after Montreal sent him searching for bluer creases, Esposito corralled the Calder and Vezina Trophies and finished second among MVP candidates. He won two more Vezinas (1972 and 1974), contended for another in 1983, and was on the Hart ballot another seven times, finishing as a finalist in 1983.

Unfortunately, the Blackhawks could never reward Esposito’s otherworldly contributions with a Cup. With Dryden, the Habs never exactly hurt from his departure, and this was especially evident in three playoff encounters.

Esposito led all goaltenders with two shutouts, a 2.20 goals-against average, and a .920 save percentage in the 1971 playoffs. But that journey ended with a fall-from-ahead 3-2 loss to the Canadiens in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final at Chicago Stadium.

Esposito failed to outduel Dryden again in a 1973 rematch, his only other appearance in the championship round. Ditto the 1976 quarterfinal, which ended in a sweep and was the first step of Dryden’s ride to his third of six Cups in the decade.