5 random players you forgot were on the Montreal Canadiens

Montreal Canadiens: Roy Worters

A posthumous Hall of Fame inductee in 1969, Worters left his legacy with a pair of long-defunct NHL teams. He played three seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates, then the majority of nine with the New York Americans.

Through a sort of arrangement that will never happen again, his only interruption to the latter was a one-game pact with the Habs in 1930. This was before backup goaltenders were the norm, and rival teams could lend their netminder to one another on an as-needed basis.

Worters answered that call when the Americans let him be a Canadien and spell Hainsworth for a February 27 tilt with Toronto. He allowed two goals and got the victory, then returned to New York.

A month later, Worters and the lowly Americans — who curiously were the only U.S.-based member of that year’s Canadian Division — took to the sidelines for the playoffs while the top-dog Habs marched to the Cup.

As it happened, Worters sandwiched a 1928-29 MVP campaign and a 1930-31 Vezina-winning year around that unique two-team season. To start the de facto second half of his Americans career, he led the league with a 1.61 goals-against average. He was then a second-team All-Star in and 1932 and 1934, and also finished fifth among Hart candidates in the latter year.

Previously, with Pittsburgh, Worters was an MVP candidate as a rookie in 1925-26, then a finalist in 1927-28. But his only brush with a hardware-caliber team was a one-off deal that still did not bring him close to a ring.

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