Surprise: Canadiens' trade involving Craig Rivet continues to pay off for the Habs

For those of you who are not convinced by this column opening, let me explain.

In February 2007, Habs defenseman Craig Rivet, a good friend of then-captain Saku Koivu but not a unanimous supporter of the organization, was traded to the San Jose Sharks in exchange for young defenseman Josh Gorges and a first round pick that same year.

We know what happened next, the Canadiens chose Max Pacioretty with this first round selection and for several seasons, Pacioretty and Gorges were important players in the organization.

But as David St-Jean of Marqueur.com reports, it's when you split the deal in half that it gets pretty interesting.

In the summer of 2014, Josh Gorges was sent to the Buffalo Sabres for a second-round pick in 2016. That same year, Marc Bergevin used that pick to trade it to the Chicago Blackhawks in the deal that brought Andrew Shaw to Montreal.

Three years later, Shaw returned to Chicago for draft picks and two of those picks were used to select prospect Jan Mysak, who is playing with the Laval Rocket this season, as well as Austrian Vinzenz Rohrer, who was seen at the last World Junior Championship.

And guess what happened to the third pick for Andrew Shaw? Marc Bergevin used it to acquire goalie Jake Allen in the fall of 2020.

Still pretty interesting when you analyze it all.

And I still haven't told you about Marc Bergevin's real masterstroke when he traded Max Pacioretty to the Vegas Golden Knights for the services of Tomas Tatar and Nick Suzuki in September 2018.

Tatar has been invaluable to the Habs and Nick Suzuki is not only the team captain, but also the number one center that fans have been waiting for.

Ha yes, I also forgot to mention that the Habs also got a second round pick in 2019, later traded to the Los Angeles Kings, for two other picks that became Mattias Norlinder and Jacob Leguerrier.

While it's a little early to rule on Norlinder, Leguerrier and Rohrer, Mysak is considered one of the organization's good prospects and we could see him in Montreal sooner than we think.

As for Suzuki and Allen, I think everything has been said about the importance of these two players in the organization.

It's still pretty incredible that even 16 years later, the deal that sent Craig Rivet to San Jose is still paying off in 2023 and this situation is even more unusual because Rivet was originally drafted in 1992... 31 years ago!

To better understand the family tree of the original transaction involving Craig Rivet, look below.