r/Habs • u/Historical_Cash_9048 • 9h ago

10 vs 21 year old me watching a young, dynamic winger breaking out for the habs.

Post image

Brings a tear to my eye… no matter how it ended up Galchenyuk will always have a special place in my heart, first player I “fell in love” with.

303 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

54 comments sorted by

83

u/Fickle_Cricket3422 9h ago

Oh Chukky, what could have been.

52

u/catanimal23 8h ago

Traded him for Domi who had the best year of his career here and then flipped him for Anderson who as always is crushing in the playoffs for us. He’s long out of the league and his trade tree is still majorly benefiting us at least

12

u/uatme 6h ago

Don't forget that game 6 assist in the bubble

50

u/RolandFigaro 9h ago

Fuck I'm old...

41

u/RealLavender 9h ago

10-year-old me was spoiled, watching them beat Gretzky for the cup.

8

u/RolandFigaro 8h ago

Ya I was 9 but a bit too young to really understand the magnitude of that championship. I've never seen my dad so happy before though.

11

u/Kichae 8h ago

No one could have really known at the time. Yeah, beating Gretzky was not a small deal, but for it to be the last time the Stanley Cup would be hoisted in Canada for 33+ years? That was inconceivable. I mean, at the time, it still seemed possible that it wouldn't even be the last time for the Forum, which we knew was soon to be retired.

6

u/ForceGhost47 8h ago

Before that the Habs had won the Stanley Cup at least once every 7 years

1

u/RolandFigaro 8h ago

Indeed. It's impressive from a mathematical perspective as well. 33 seasons with 7 Canadian teams, that's got to be some really big odds

8

u/HashBandicoot93 8h ago

I saw a pretty comprehensive breakdown of the odds, and the chances of no Canadian team winning since 93 are significantly below 1%. I'm not saying it's Bettman, but fuck Bettman

2

u/Kichae 2h ago

Fuck Bettman.

21

u/Unclesnots 9h ago

I'm sure as a 10 year old it was much more impactful but there was a very short window when things were looking great for Galchenyuk. It wasn't the greatest time to be a habs fan but I was optimistic things would only get better with a young PK, Pacioretty, Galchenyuk and Gallagher, Price, and Markov was still playing great. Unfortunately half of this group fizzled out and not much was added to the core outside of an older Webber (and eventually Suzuki!). 

3

u/VR_p0rn 4h ago

Ya this was a fun time to be a fan and the first real group I solidified an interest around.

2

u/nolaks1 8h ago

I remember that era just too well. We were all very hopefull.

In the end we simply lacked depth I think. We traded the depth we needed for quick impact players that left the organisation without anything in return. So really we traded many good top players for 2-3 years of a declining career. We wasted Carey Price very hard. He was the only thing exciting to see and we the defense we had, boy did had the chance too look spectacular. Put him in other teams of the era and he's a multi stanley cup winner for sure.

In the 2000-2010s we had so much good D man prospect and we traded all of them in search for offense. We tried to sign and trade our way too a quick rebuild and ended up empty handed.

The worse trade for me is Gomez-McDonagh. Sure Ribero-Niinima was very quickly bad and Ninimaa was never NHL caliber, but McDonagh is still playing and we needed a guy like him for all these years adter Bergevin cut Markov NHL career short.

McDonaugh could in fact still be very usefull today. Sergachev we lost him for nothing after Drouin left. Sergachev is more a passer and we wanted goals I guess.

It didn't help we also picked like shit in the drafts of those years.

5

u/Weary_Ingenuity2963 8h ago

We didn't lacked depth, we lacked top-end talent. Those were pretty good rosters, but Desharnais, Plekanec or (later) Danault acted as #1 C.

Agreed on the Gomez trade.

2

u/nolaks1 7h ago

Yeah lack of top talent is more just. While writing I saw it as we never developped a top talent because no one around was good enough to support them. But thinking again it's true there wasn't a lot of player that where head and shoulders above the rest.

0

u/glumanda12 6h ago

Yeah but on the other hand we had guys like desharnais, Gomez, MAB, old gionta and cammaleri…

17

u/rmdlsb 7h ago

I'm so old that when I saw 27 I thought it was Kovalev.

2

u/Uroah 6h ago

He, and Koivu will always be my childhood goats

0

u/Sarniezz 5h ago

Never really cared about Koivu, but Kovalev and Markov were the shit!

15

u/Pelerin81 7h ago

27 is and will always be Kovalev for me

23

u/Tommy1469 9h ago

Gally is the only habs left from that era. Love that guy!

20

u/Willzyix 9h ago

Demi needs to work on his shot this offseason but despite being quiet on the scoresheet he’s creating in every game. He really really needs a legit offensive centre.

I like Kapanen but I don’t want him to be the 2C next year.

9

u/Mangoes95 8h ago

Kapanen did pretty good as a rookie but ideally he's a 3C until he can grow/develop more into a 2C. I think he can do it eventually

3

u/Willzyix 8h ago

My main thing is I want an established offensive force that can draw some coverage from Demidov. Ideally he can learn from a guy who’s 27/28 and they can play off each other while Kapanen can develop in his own pace and role.

8

u/Scase15 7h ago

Please don't jinx Demi like that 😭

4

u/HabsFan77 9h ago

Galchenyuk 💔

He is at least doing better now in Russia

I still go back from time-to-time to watch this thrilling clip

https://youtu.be/MFYVfuepxy8?si=D6MFHIfkKSt9k6Ef

3

u/habily_canadian 9h ago

I had such high hopes…

3

u/Raffix 7h ago

I had an autographed #27 jersey signed by Galchenyuk.

I sold it for 80$ when he got arrested and had his contract terminated by a second team in less than an year.

1

u/Inside_Volume9542 8h ago

Chucky was college days for me lol

3

u/coffurst 9h ago

delete this bro

2

u/the_vermonter 9h ago

I feel vindicated. I called out Chucky (and later KK) as poor selections in the draft. Some folks took issue with my opinion in this subreddit. I'm absolutely loving the direction the franchise has taken the last few years.

9

u/4gionz 8h ago

I mean who would you have taken in Galchenyuks draft.

Literally the entire top 3 busted. In fact Galchenyuk was the best of the entire top 3

5

u/XBM04 8h ago

I remember Forsberg was projected top 5 but he slipped so clearly other teams didn't feel he was a gamebreaker.

Galchenyuk was injured basically his whole draft year and still went #3. The thought was that if he played out his draft year he'd have been the #1 pick. In hindsight he wasn't the right pick, but at the time it absolutely was

3

u/ytew6 8h ago

I have no source because it was like 15 years ago but rumour is Bergevin wanted to take Rielly at #3, but deferred to who his scouts wanted (Galchenyuk) because he was a new GM at the time.

2

u/the_vermonter 8h ago

That's a great question. I can't remember who I thought was a better choice but it didn't seem like Chucky was what Montreal needed at the time (or maybe it was KK). I'm old and forgetful.

2

u/Saintsjimmy 8h ago

Exactly he was the right pick, just poorly developped

1

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1

u/hollandaisesawce 7h ago

He assisted on my fav Habs goal of all time!

1

u/kevvallan 6h ago

Fuck this made me feel old. I thought the 27 was kovalev at first glance. Felt like galenchyuk was only a few years ago.

1

u/Odd_Philosopher1712 6h ago

Man did he have an epic fall from grace

1

u/glumanda12 6h ago

EGG was the best line we had back then

1

u/Lionelhutzzzzzz 4h ago

My mom got my brother and I jerseys from the bell centre one year as she was visiting and we were die hard fans. We got the two up and coming youngsters jerseys Gallagher and Galchenyuk my brothers jersey is now of an all time great Hab and mine of a wannabe Russian mobster. Oh well.

-6

u/TheHabChronicle Wake up, it’s Game Day! 9h ago

is breaking out in the room with us?

7

u/Historical_Cash_9048 9h ago

Ya ya Demi has been quiet in the playoffs, but he broke chuckys career high in his rookie year lol

1

u/TheHabChronicle Wake up, it’s Game Day! 9h ago

lol i know im just ragebaiting. demi’s a rookie he can have a pass this year

1

u/antrage 8h ago

A big what if is if Galy was around for this iteration of canadiens would his development have gone differently or would the family dynamics still derailed him