Réjean Houle

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Rejean Houle (born October 25, 1949 in Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec) was a Canadian ice hockey forward.

Rejean played in the National Hockey League from 1969 to 1973 and from 1976 to 1983. During this time, he played for the Montreal Canadiens. Rejean would win five Stanley Cups with Montreal. In between his NHL stints, he played for the Quebec Nordiques of the World Hockey Association. Rejean was the number one draft pick of the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft.

After his playing days, he was general manager of the Canadiens from 1995 to 2000. He is best known for making the infamous trade that sent Patrick Roy and Mike Keane to the Colorado Avalanche for Jocelyn Thibault, Martin Rucinsky and Andrei Kovalenko.

Houle's inexperience showed during his time as the Canadiens GM. At the time of his departure, reports speculated it would take another five years to recover from the damage Houle inflicted on the Canadiens, which included a number of questionable trades and draft picks.

Not only did Houle let go of Roy, who went on later that season to win a Stanley Cup, but he allowed Mark Recchi, Pierre Turgeon and Vincent Damphousse to slip through his fingers in lopsided trades. He also traded Valeri Bure - who went on to score 35 goals for the Flames - for Jonas Hoglund. When Hoglund failed to live up to his potential, Houle gave him his unconditional release.

Hoglund was snapped up by the Leafs, and then had the best season of his career. Houle also passed over Marian Hossa in favour of Jason Ward in the 1997 Entry Draft.

In 2000, in front of a sold-out crowd at the Molson Centre, before a nationwide television audience, the Montreal Canadiens fell to last place overall in the NHL standings, ushered in by a humiliating 6-1 loss to the arch-rival Toronto Maple Leafs.

"Embarrassment Night in Canada," read the headline in the Montreal Gazette the next day. Disgusted with his team's performance, Canadiens president Pierre Boivin decided it was time for a change.

Two days after being publicly embarrassed, Boivin fired coach Alain Vigneault and Houle. Houle broke up in tears at the press conference and said: "I did the best I could to put together a team within the budget I had and I think we're in the middle third of the NHL,"

"I'm 51 and this is the first time in my life I'll be getting up and I won't have a job to go to. I don't know what I'll do. I don't have any hobbies or anything. I've always enjoyed working."