We are naming all-time teams – 21 players, a head coach and GM - for each of the seven Canadian NHL clubs. Today, we begin with the Montreal Canadiens.

1. Steve Dryden
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Sr. Managing Editor of
Hockey
Archive (/talent/steve-
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TSN Hockey today introduces the All-Time 7 Project. We are
naming all-time teams – 21 players, a head coach and GM - for
each of the seven Canadian NHL clubs. Today, we begin with
the Montreal Canadiens.
Picking an all-time team in any sport is a mug’s game at best,
an act of masochism at worst.
You can’t win. And you certainly can’t win when you’re tasked
with selecting 21 players to capture the history of the most
decorated team in NHL history: the Montreal Canadiens.
Nowhere was the challenge greater than in the crease where
five Hall of Famers squared off to fill one position.
Only one, and not two, because Carey Price was the only
authentic candidate to fill one of the baseline requirements for
assembling TSN all-time teams for all seven Canadian NHL
teams.
That is, there must be at least one member of 2019-20 teams
on each of the rosters.
Price, No. 1 in franchise wins, gets the job of Montreal’s No. 2
goalie.
So, who’s No. 1? Six-time Stanley Cup winners Jacques Plante
and Ken Dryden; six-time first all-star Bill Durnan, two-time
playoff MVP Patrick Roy or George Hainsworth, he of the 22
shutouts in 44 games (1928-29)?
(https://www.tsn.ca)

2. Georges Vezina, the man whose name is on the trophy given
annually to the league’s best goalie, was not a consideration on
a technicality: He didn’t meet the minimum requirement of 225
games played with the Canadiens.
In the end, Dryden got the nod to represent the back end by the
narrowest of margins over Roy.
And Plante was named the Canadiens’ foundational player –
defined as the player who is part of the very fabric, the DNA, of
the organization.
There was a compelling case for Roy because he carried
Montreal to two Stanley Cups, earning two Conn Smythe
honours along the way. His Canadiens of the 1980s and 1990s
were not filled with Hall of Famers like Plante’s of the 1950s and
Dryden’s of the 1970s.
But Dryden’s extraordinary career marks could not be denied:
258 wins and only 57 losses during the regular season, plus 19
series wins and just two losses in eight post-seasons.
Here are the rest of our choices and last cuts. Let us know what
you think.
TSN All-Time Team Eligibility Criteria
□ Team: two goalies, six defencemen, 12 forwards and one
foundational player
□ Members must have played at least 225 games with the
Canadiens
□ At least one member of the all-time team must be from the
2019-20 Canadiens
□ Players are slotted in positions they played with the
Canadiens
□ One line must be comprised of defensive standouts, aka a
checking line
□ One pair must be comprised of suffocating defenders, aka a
shutdown pair
□ Lines and pairs are put together because they fit together, not
because they are necessarily the first, second and third best at
their positions
□ Foundational players are defined as players part of the fabric
– the DNA – of a franchise
□ Last cuts by position are exactly as advertised, the players
who just missed selection to the all-time team
(https://www.tsn.ca)

3. Goalie Ken Dryden
Dryden’s career statistics are staggering: Six Stanley Cups, the
Conn Smythe Trophy, the Calder Trophy and six berths on the
first or second all-star team in eight NHL seasons.
Goalie Carey Price
The winningest goalie in team history and 2014-15 Hart Trophy
winner is the right choice to represent the current Canadiens on
the all-time team.
LD Doug Harvey – RD Butch Bouchard
The six-time Norris Trophy-winning Harvey and three-time first
all-star Bouchard make a great combination on the ice and in
the Hall of Fame.
LD Guy Lapointe – RD Chris Chelios
Two like-sized and like-minded players, Lapointe had three 20-
goal seasons and six top-five finishes in Norris voting while
Chelios won a Norris and a Stanley Cup.
LD Larry Robinson – RD Serge Savard
(https://www.tsn.ca)