Appearing on the Missin Curfew Podcast last week, former NHL right winger Kelly Chase explained that he nearly became a Montreal Canadiens. Then St. Louis Blues GM Ron “The Prof” Caron had reached a deal with his Montreal counterpart Serge Savard that would have sent him to Montreal, but Caron had to rescind to deal.
View the original article to see embedded media.
These days plenty of players have got clauses in their contract allowing them to have control on their own destiny by putting together a list of teams they cannot be traded to or by simply having a no-trade clause in their contract. In Chase’s time though, that didn’t exist. Your GM traded you, you packed your stuff and you went on your merry way… unless your friend was the top player on the team.
Recalling a particular trade deadline, Chase said the Golden Brett, Brett Hull, had convinced him to go play a round of golf even though he thought he may be traded. As luck would have it, he was called in to the office and told he was traded to Montreal. He left the sniper on the golf course and by the time he got to the office to speak to Caron, the deal was no more.
Bob Plager, Brett Hull and Kelly Chase all just exchanged hugs after the #STLBlues captured the Western Conference. That’s a lot of Blues blood sweat and tears right there sharing a moment. pic.twitter.com/QRRcJTJJJm
— Corey Miller (@corey_miller5) May 22, 2019
Hull wanted to keep his friend around and had told the GM that if Chase was going to Montreal, he was going with him. Caron didn’t want to lose his best player, he called Savard back and told him he had to go back on the deal.
You have to wonder how often this has happened in the history of the league. Could a Canadiens’ player have had enough pull on rookie GM Rejean Houle to stop him from trading Patrick Roy to the Colorado Avalanche? Probably not because of how public the fallout was, but there might have been lower profile trades in which it could have been done. Unless of course a former Hab decides to come out to tell their own aborted trade story or a GM writes a new tell-all book.
Related
Canadiens: Houle Was Shark Bait
Canadiens: Taxi for Being Too Mouthy
Canadiens: The Trade That Bit Back
Canadiens: Out With the Young, In With the Old
Canadiens: The Heartbreak of the 2010 Off-Season
Follow Karine on X @KarineHains Bluesky @karinehains.bsky.social and Threads @karinehains
Bookmark The Hockey News Canadiens’ page for all the news and happenings around the Canadiens
