I find myself writing about Rejean Houle very often these days as I dive deep into the worst Montreal Canadiens trades. After trading the likes of Patrick Roy, Mike Keane, Vincent Damphousse and Pierre Turgeon, Houle was still allowed to run the Canadiens for a few more years. In 1998, he made yet another trade, this time with the Tampa Bay Lighting.
In this one, he shipped out Stephane Richer who wasn’t much of a threat by then, but it wasn’t the former 50-goal scorer that would come back to bite the Canadiens.
A Real Pest
Before there was Brad Marchand and after there was Claude “Pepe” Lemieux, the Canadiens drafted a Caster, Alberta native at the 1993 draft; Darcy Tucker. His first season in the WHL yielded modest results with 13 points in 26 games, but his second year showed there was more where that came from, in 67 games he scored 89 points and had 155 penalty minutes.
If that draft year performance got Montreal’s attention, his following two seasons in the WHL were even more impressive and got him a contract with the team. In his first professional season in the AHL, Tucker racked up 93 points and 174 penalty minutes and got himself three games in the NHL. Montreal assumed he was ready for the NHL in the next season. In 73 games, he picked up 20 points while spending 110 minutes in the sin bin. In the following season, his performance wasn’t any better and the Canadiens called time on his tenure in Montreal 39 games into the 1997-1998 season. In that span, he had only got six points and 57 penalty minutes.
The Trade
Unhappy with Tucker’s performance, Houle elected to package him with Stephane Richer, (who had been back in Montreal for a year and a half), former 20th-overall pick at the 1992 draft, defenseman David Wilkie, and send them to Tampa Bay.
In return, the Canadiens acquired Patrick Poulin, a Quebecer who was a ninth-overall pick by the Hartford Whalers at the 1991 draft; right-shot defenseman Igor Ulanov, a tenth-round pick in 1991 (yes the draft was that deep back then) who was on his fourth team in eight seasons and forward Mick Vukota, an undrafted tough guy who had already played 11 seasons in the NHL and who’s best days were obviously behind him.
The Aftermath
Unsurprisingly, Montreal was Vukota’s last stop in the NHL. He did keep playing pro for a couple of seasons in the AHL. He finished the season of the deal with the Canadiens and had 76 penalty minutes to his name at the end of the regular calendar.
As for Ulanov, he only played four games before the end of the season after the trade. He got an assist and 12 minutes in that span. He spent all the following campaign in Montreal, suiting up for 76 match-ups and picking up a dozen points to go with his 109 penalty minutes. After playing 44 games in the 1999-2000 season, he was sent to the Edmonton Oilers in a minor deal. the Canadiens received Matthieu Descoteaux and Christian Laflamme while Alain Nasreddine went to Alberta with Ulanov.
The third player acquired by the Canadiens in the deal, Poulin, would spend four and a half unimpressive years with the Sainte-Flanelle and failed to make much of an impact. In the 2001-2002 season, he was sent down to the AHL where he played his last 28 professional hockey games with the Quebec Citadelles. Unfortunately for him, he never lived up to the lofty expectations which are often put on first-round picks. When all was said and done, he just couldn’t keep up with NHL play even though the Canadiens’ patience allowed him to play 634 games before retiring.
Meanwhile, Tucker’s performances improved under the Florida sun. Slowly but surely he started to have more of an influence on the games. However, it’s once he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs that he became the best version of himself, putting up points while also stirring up the pot. For three years, he even got to play with brother-in-law Shayne Corson after he signed with the Leafs as a free agent before the 2000-2001 season. The power forward was lucky to be able to count on Tucker who helped him deal with panic attacks and restless nights as he was not only his linemate, but his roommate on the road.
Wilkie didn’t make much of a mark in Tampa Bay or anywhere else really. He had only played 167 NHL games when he decided to hang them up. As for Richer, he wasn’t the lethal attacker he had once been. He only played three more seasons of NHL hockey with the Bolts, the St. Louis Blues, the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Devils. Still, when the curtain fell on his career he had played 1054 games and racked-up 819 points. To this day, he remains the last 50-goal scorer the Canadiens have had. A feat that hasn’t been seen in Montreal since the 1989-1990 season.
In the end, Tucker was without a doubt the most impactful player in the trade and played 12 NHL seasons after being cast aside by the Canadiens. He didn’t make it to the 1000 NHL game milestone, but he did play 947 matches. His last season was with the Colorado Avalanche in 2009-2010 and when he pulled the plug, he had 476 points and 1410 penalty minutes.
