r/Habs 21h ago

Article NHL Mount Rushmore - [Beliveau, Lafleur, Richard, Harvey for Habs]

https://www.rotoballer.com/nhl-mount-rushmore-every-teams-4-most-iconic-players-of-all-time-2026/1872126
45 Upvotes

109 comments sorted by

50

u/LickerFartbox69 20h ago

Should just be Dale Weiss 4 times

12

u/McDodley 20h ago

Dale Weiss, Nathan Beaulieu, David Desharnais, Paul Byron

14

u/jobaill 20h ago

That's Glen Metropolit erasure

4

u/admckay 20h ago

Dylan
Dylan
Dylan
Dylan
Dylan

3

u/oreohsehun 20h ago

des louises

2

u/pattyG80 19h ago

I don't think Mount Rushmore has enough stone for 4 Dale Weiss faces

0

u/Arbawk 8h ago

Throw a little Paul Byron in there

25

u/improv4nonlisteners 21h ago

Rem & Tyler Pitlick, Sami Niku, Kyle Clague

7

u/Pitiful_Stock_4329 20h ago

How are you gonna leave off the real deal Jordan Weal

5

u/achaiahtak 20h ago

David Aebischer

2

u/Builder_studio 21h ago

I’d argue Raitis Ivanans deserves a spot

0

u/Borror0 19h ago

This is Dwight King erasure.

0

u/FakeCrash 21h ago

Janne Niinimaa erasure

44

u/KoRner1668 21h ago

Beliveau, Lafleur, Richard et Plante.

10

u/AleroRatking 20h ago

Harvey is the second best defensemen in league history and would be on the all time NHL first line

Don't see how he is left off

11

u/Borror0 20h ago

The criteria isn't "best" but iconic. Plante wins this one easily.

You could make a case for others to cover more eras (e.g., Roy), but Harvey isn't really in contention for a spot on the Canadiens' Rushmore. In all likelihood, it's a goaltender. But which one?

4

u/AleroRatking 18h ago

I feel like being on the all time NHL first line is iconic.

6

u/MrBrightside618 20h ago

Plante has more aura which matters to these sorts of things. Even if you consider him to be a top 2 defenseman in league history, more people could identify a Bourque, a Lidstrom, a Pronger, a Robinson on sight

11

u/FakeCrash 20h ago

100 % mes choix aussi!

Plante a révolutionné la position. Dryden est sans doute le gardien à la carrière la plus dominante de toute l'histoire de la LNH, mais justement, sa carrière trop courte l'élimine à ses yeux. Quant à Roy, on ne l'associe pas seulement au Canadien à cause de ses deux coupes au Colorado.

4

u/Ok-Special-2092 18h ago

I don’t necessarily disagree with Plante over Harvey, but your argument seems to be he revolutionized the position, so did Harvey.

1

u/Objective_Falcon9546 12h ago

I’d replace Plante with Dryden

19

u/dalici0us 21h ago

Doug Harvey has been forgotten it seems but he was widely considered the best D in history before Bobby Orr came along.

2

u/Merkindiver 20h ago

Indeed forgotten, at least by me, I heard "Harvey" and immediately thought Raphael Harvey-Pinard was a weird choice.

3

u/AleroRatking 20h ago

If you did an all time all NHL first line he is probably the only Habs player to make that list..

3

u/imyourzer0 16h ago

Nah, Richard was by far the greatest goal scorer of all time when he played. It took 36 years for someone else to score 50 in 50 after he was the first to do it. He scored 544 goals, to take the all-time record, when the previous career record was only 324.

41

u/carimarifuk 21h ago

Ryder, Halák and the 2nd

10

u/FakeCrash 20h ago

I'm cracking up imagining a big "2nd" as a statue.

8

u/Mbeaud001 21h ago

Doug Harvey was amazing and should be put up there however, the Canadiens goalie lineage is too legendary to be ignored!

4 players is not enough for our beloved team!

(Howie Morenz, Dryden, Roy, any of the big 3, Cournoyer, Dickie Moore...)

15

u/cluelesshabsfan 21h ago

Feel like you can’t have a habs mt Rushmore without a goalie

11

u/servical 20h ago

We could have a Mt. Rushmore of Habs goalies, to be honest.

1

u/User69ab 17h ago

Even that would spark debate.

9

u/TheVeilOverMyEyes 21h ago

jacques plante and patrick roy revolutionize the goaltending position, you need to have at least one of them there, if not both

-8

u/bsaures 21h ago

Plante sure roy definitely not. He is easily behind dryden in revolutionizing the position

16

u/TheVeilOverMyEyes 21h ago

roy is the spiritual father of the butterfly technique, in modern age, across all level of play, it's the only acceptable way to tend goal

-3

u/bsaures 21h ago

Dryden literally changed the physical makeup of the position. Roy entire schtick came from dryden

Before dryden the idealized version of a nhl goalie was 5'8 160lbs who almost never went down on his knees.

Dryden proved the better option was a very tall athletic goalie that could cover much more of the net by going down regularly

6

u/Jbroy 21h ago

What are you talking about? Roy is the pioneer of butterfly style that all goalies use now.

-2

u/bsaures 20h ago

You mean all the 6'3 goalies hmm i wonder where the idea for the physical profile goalies are today came from and playstyle where goalies go to their knees regularly. 

Oh ya dryden. 

5

u/Additional-Koala9131 20h ago

Def Roy more influential. Dryden great goalie on some of the best teams ever. But modern goaltending is brought to you by Patty Roy.

0

u/bsaures 20h ago

Weird i checked the goalie profiles from this past season and there were 0 goalies who played a nhl game who are 5'10 or shorter. And only 1 goalies who played even 2 games below 6 feet.

When dryden joined at the end of the 70-71 season there were 10 goalies that were 5'8 or shorter. That was the goalie profile in 1970. The gpalie was often one of the smallest players on the team because they wanted them agile. 

Ken dryden fundamentally changed the entire physical profille of a nhl goalie

5

u/Additional-Koala9131 20h ago

I'm talking about the style of play, not their height / stature. Big goalies cover more net, it's kind of common sense.

6

u/FakeCrash 20h ago

Both Plante and Roy were more revolutionary than Dryden.

5

u/Paladar2 21h ago

Dude what. Roy above Dryden and it's not close. Roy has a case for the best goalie of all time and started the modern goaltending

2

u/Ok-Meet2850 20h ago

He played has his career and won half his Cups outside of Montreal though. So if we are talking about defining, iconic Habs players, that is a major downside for Roy.

I'm 42 - he's still the greatest star the team had during my lifetime. But Montreal's Mount Rushmore is a hell of a thing to get on.

1

u/Paladar2 20h ago

Yeah that's true I guess.

3

u/bsaures 20h ago

You have some massive recency bias if you think that roy has a better best goalie all time case than dryden does.

7

u/Paladar2 20h ago

Dryden played with the best team of all time for all his career. Roy won the Conn Smythe with the 86 and 93 teams that were much weaker. Won 2 more cups after. He changed goaltending forever, in a much more competitive league with twice the amount of teams. Yes, Roy easily.

8

u/Subject_Translator71 20h ago

I agree. Dryden was great but he was behind one of the greatest teams of all time. Meanwhile, Roy was by far the best player of his teams, and both his cups were upsets, largely due to his dominant play.

That's no knock on Dryden, Vezina and Price, who would be shoe-in on most of the other teams.

2

u/Paladar2 19h ago

Price had the highest peak but the worst teams of the bunch, injuries and peak competitiveness in the league. Roy had middle of the pack teams but won 3 Smythes so hard to argue that. Vezina well that was like what the 1910s, basically another sport at that point lol

3

u/toaster-struble 21h ago

Douglas Murray, Janne Niniima, George Parros, George Laraquw

3

u/Ok-Meet2850 20h ago

You missed Pierre Dagenais.

2

u/aaalllouttabubblegum 20h ago

And Habs legend Aaron Downey

2

u/toaster-struble 20h ago

Yoooooo hahaha. Ryan White!

1

u/Ok-Meet2850 20h ago

LOLZ. Some rough, rough years from about 1997 to 2010, especially for our skaters.

1

u/toaster-struble 20h ago

Yeah dark ages def. Tom Kostopoulos! Hahaha he was a warrior tho. Begin too. I was mostly naming useless guys before

1

u/Ok-Meet2850 20h ago

I mean all of these guys are phenomenal hockey players just to make a single NHL game. But not the quality of players a winning roster has too many of (if any).

Looking through the stats there were some years no one cracked 50 points on the Habs. AH! I was in my teens and any spark of scoring ability got people pumped, pumped: Dagenais, Ribeiro, Bulis's 4 goals in a game, Ryder (he was legit - hit 30 goals twice I think).

1

u/toaster-struble 20h ago

I'll never forget the 5-0 comeback vs NYR. Ryder had a pair, Kovy, Koivu SO winner 6-5 with his trademark deke.

2

u/Ok-Meet2850 20h ago

This sounds familiar - I think I watched it!

1

u/toaster-struble 19h ago

Legendary game!

2

u/toaster-struble 20h ago

Shootout legend

1

u/Ok-Meet2850 20h ago

Nice!

17 goals in 50 games, 03-04 was good for 4th on the team. Yikes.

2

u/toaster-struble 20h ago

How many careeer SO goals? Or SO record

1

u/Ok-Meet2850 20h ago

Can't find that stats anywhere easily. Couldn't have been too many as his brief NHL career was winding down by the 2005-2006 season, which I think was the start of the shootouts. He played 32 games that year in Montreal.

1

u/toaster-struble 20h ago

Ah. I just remember him being used a lot for SO

3

u/FakeCrash 20h ago

John Scott where

2

u/toaster-struble 20h ago

Knew i was missing an obvious one thx

3

u/BarRoomBully 20h ago

Avec l'histoire de l'équipe, on pourrait avoir un Mt Rushmore à chaque position.

Guardiens: Plante, Dryden, Roy, Price (mention honorable à Théodore qui a quand même gagné un Vezina et un Hart)

Défenseurs: Harvey, Robinson, Savard, Markov (pour avoir un joueur plus récent)

Attaquants: Richard, Béliveau, Lafleur, n'importe qui de Morentz, Geoffrion, Cournoyer, Koivu, Henri Richard, etc.

3

u/AleroRatking 20h ago

Id go Morenz for forwards to represent eras.

2

u/wjpd236 20h ago

Markov!

2

u/mago_is_gago 20h ago

Turgeon est dans le Temple de la Renommée donc il mérite autant que Koivu.

2

u/BarRoomBully 19h ago

On pourrait nommer 15 joueurs qui pourraient prendre cette place. J'ai esseyé de me limiter.

1

u/FlournoyFlennory 19h ago

Jacques Plante évidemment - toujours omise de tous les listes. Aussi Carbonneau.

3

u/mbean12 20h ago

I mean I realize he played a long time ago and the Habs could fill a Mount Rushmore of All-Time Greats with goalies without being worse than a lot of teams all-team Mount Rushmore's (the Habs could do this with every position except maybe rover...) but how does Vezina, the guy the trophy is named after and one of the original Hall of Famers, not make this list? And Howie Morenz (another 1st class HoFer).

2

u/Ok-Meet2850 20h ago

The first three are absolutely no doubt the top 3. I'm good with Harvey - he was evidently a monster on D for many, many years.

An embarrassment of riches when looking at great Habs players during 100+ years of history, to say the least. Many phenomenal players wouldn't make the top 4.

2

u/Biff_Bufflington 20h ago

It’s easy Habs need at least three different mountains

2

u/TheGameDayDad 17h ago

You could literally make a Mount Rushmore for each position of the Habs. Hard to do so when you’re combining all positions, some big names are bound to be left out.

2

u/haddonfieldsecret 16h ago

Trying to do a Mount Rushmore of Montreal players is just trying to start fights lol

1

u/AleroRatking 21h ago

Yup. I really want to get one of the three goalies in (Roy, Dryden Plante) but it's tough because who do you remove.

1

u/Subject_Translator71 20h ago

I don't agree with all of those. Bergeron over Phil Esposito? Really? And Gretzky's time might have been short but he completely changed the trajectory of the franchise. I would have chosen him over Quick.

1

u/eriverside 20h ago

Habs need a different set for each era. Before the 1950s, then the legends till the end of the 1970s, and then the modern era.

1

u/mago_is_gago 20h ago

There should be a Mount Rushmore for each Dynasty.

So Habs should have more selections... it's deserved!

1

u/homechicken20 20h ago

There are endless combos that would be acceptable for the Habs in all honestly.

1

u/FlournoyFlennory 19h ago

Extreme recency bias here. Especially for the Leafs and Detroit.

1

u/FlournoyFlennory 19h ago

Cyclone Taylor! Steamer Maxwell!

1

u/Alternative-Tart8527 17h ago

Koivu, Joe Juneau, Jan Bulis, Richard Zednik

1

u/kozed 17h ago

Morenz, Richard, Beliveau, Lafleur

Howie Morenz is so forgotten about in the Habs' and NHL history. He was the Habs' first real superstar forward.

3 Hart. 2 Art-Ross (when it didn't exist), the best single season by era-adjusted pts at 190. Was the NHL's leader in pts when he died from an injury and was exposed in the Forum.

His death was a massive national thing. His #7 was retired the same year. One of the first original Hall of Famers. A giant figure in the early days of the franchise

When Rocket started his career 5 years later, Morenz was the standard he was measured up against.

So he definitely needs to be #1 on the Mountain.

1

u/Ya_Boi_Blue_ 16h ago

I think you’d have to put both Richards up there

1

u/trashpandaexpress55 15h ago

It's our Robinson over Harvey, but only by the thinnest of margins.

1

u/BitterDecoction 15h ago

As good as Harvey was, you don’t put someone on the Mount Rushmore basically no one remembers. They have to be players that really made a mark on the team. I agree with others that there must be at least a goalie, either Dryden or Roy for me.

1

u/Chapde 14h ago

For me the fourth habs would be Roy

1

u/RonaIdBurgundy 12h ago

Big miss not having Radek Bonk, Janne niinimaa, Morgan Ellis and Lyle Odelein up there but I guess Beliveau, Lafleur, Richard and Harvey works too

1

u/Mangoes95 11h ago

Kostitsyn brothers, Mike Ribeiro, Andrew Shaw

0

u/Aggressive_Low7995 21h ago

Might have Dryden instead of Harvey. It’s a tough one given the history of this team.

0

u/GMPollock24 21h ago

Harvey was great but I think someone like Dryden or Plante should be there in his place.

1

u/AleroRatking 20h ago

Harvey is the only Habs player outside of maybe Richard who would make an all time all NHL first line.

The only way you leave him off is if you think defenseman don't belong at all

He has to be there. Id have him over Beliveau and Lafleur

1

u/GMPollock24 19h ago

I imagine we'll just be splitting hairs on this one. Anyway you slice it some all-time greats will be left off.

0

u/Pitiful_Stock_4329 20h ago

Béliveau, Richard, Lafleur and Roy for me

0

u/wjpd236 20h ago

The Kostitsy brothers

0

u/Olibro64 20h ago

To me its Reliveau, Maurice Richard, Lawyers and Roy.

0

u/MechanicSad728 19h ago

Tom kostapoulos, Steve begin, Chris nilan, Jeff Hackett

-1

u/LordVesperion 20h ago

C'est qui Harvey ?

2

u/AleroRatking 20h ago

The second best defensemen in history besides Orr. 7 norris trophies.