5 random players you forgot were on the Montreal Canadiens
By Al Daniel
Montreal Canadiens: Stephane Fiset
Born in Montreal the year before Dryden’s dynamic rookie season, Fiset started his own career with the provincial rival Quebec Nordiques.
By the time he was 23, in 1993-94, the starting job there was unequivocally his. A year later, he placed ninth on both the shutout and save percentage leaderboard while backstopping the Nordiques to first place in the Eastern Conference.
Two months after the franchise resurfaced as the Colorado Avalanche, Fiset was relegated to the backup role behind the newly acquired Roy. That said, he posted a sparkling 22-6-7 regular season record and qualified for a Cup ring when Colorado won that spring.
Within 10 days of winning that championship, the Avs sent Fiset to Los Angeles, where he promptly regained starting stature. He finished 10th among all 1996-97 NHL netminders with a .906 save percentage, and upped that to a career-best .915 two seasons later.
Fiset figured to remain the Kings’ No. 1 goaltender for a fifth year until a preseason injury hampered him. He managed only seven games in The Show in 2000-01, going 3-0-1, then started the next season with L.A.’s new AHL affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire.
For his final crack at an NHL gig, he only needed to move four and a half hours up through Vermont and north of the national border. The Kings swapped Fiset’s rights to the Habs ahead of the 2002 trade deadline.
By then a veteran of 12 seasons and 388 big-league games, Fiset was tasked with backing up Theodore amidst the latter’s Vezina and Hart Trophy season. He sported his native city’s crest for two games — one complete, and one incomplete — then retired before the next training camp.