This Day in Hockey History – August 12, 1981 – Serge Says Goodbye, Or Does He?

On August 12, 1981, Serge Savard announced his retirement from the NHL, though he had apparently come to that decision at the end of the Montreal Canadiens 1980-81 season. The Montreal native played all but two of his 16 years in the NHL with the Canadiens.

“He had tears in his eyes that night in Edmonton, he recalled, while he reflected on the past two seasons, the only two which he felt had been complete downers. ‘I didn’t like the way things had been going on for those two seasons,’ he said,” as was reported in The Gazette the day after his announcement.

Savard spent his junior hockey career with the Montreal Junior Canadiens who had actually served as the farm team for the Montreal Canadiens from 1933 until 1961. The NHL Entry Draft was instituted, hosting its first draft in 1963, and the Montreal Junior Canadiens joined the Ontario Hockey Association to compete at the major junior level. Savard played on the Montreal Junior Canadiens from 1963 to 1966.

His first season with the Montreal Canadiens was the 1966-67 season, in which he played just two games, spending the bulk of his time that year with the Houston Apollos. His first full season with Montreal came with the 1967-68 season. However, it was his second full season with the “bleu blanc et rouge” that saw him excel, as he helped them win a second consecutive Stanley Cup that year, himself becoming the first defenseman to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs.

He would go on to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup eight times during his playing career with the Canadiens: 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. His demeanor on the ice and in the locker room earned him the nickname “le Senateur.”

“I was one of those players who didn’t get nervous,” he said. “When we were going into overtime in the playoffs or something. I never thought about the situation or worried about having to score the goal. All that kind of thing dawned on me only after it was over.”

His career included one of the most famous events in hockey—the 1972 Summit Series—in which the Soviet Union took on Team Canada to see who was the best at hockey. Much has been written over the years about the eight games played. Of the five games Savard played in, Team Canada went 4-0-1. He didn’t play in the opening loss to the Soviets, and he was out with a hairline fracture in games 4 and 5.

“It was the most memorable series of my career. It was the closest thing to being in a war,” Savard commented to media the day he made his retirement announcement.

“Retirement isn’t likely to pose a problem for Savard, who has business interests, including a number of race horses, and is generally keen about current affairs,” reported The Ottawa Citizen on August 13.

And yet, apparently retirement was an issue, as it was only four months to the day later when Savard came out of retirement, signing with the Winnipeg Jets.

“We’re looking at Savard as a premier player in the NHL. I think he can be an unofficial third coach and maybe he’ll pass along some little hints to the defencemen and I hope they get the benefit of his experience,” said Jets head coach Tom Watt.

At the time of his retirement, the Canadiens had agreed to pay Savard $200,000 to not suit up in the 1981-82 season with Montreal. Part of the deal made between the Jets and the Canadiens saw some of that money reimbursed by the Jets.

Not everyone was as happy to see Savard suiting up again though.

Tim Burke, columnist for The Gazette did not think it was a good idea for Savard to return to the ice.

“Why is it so many fine athletes don’t know enough to stay retired?” he wrote. “It is depressing enough to witness two former world’s heavyweight champions—Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali—returning to the ring as bloated old caricatures of their once-magnificent selves, but Serge Savard’s overnight decision to take his skates out of mothballs for a go with the Winnipeg Jets is mystifying.”

Savard’s statistics during his two seasons with the Jets seem to suggest that he still had something to offer the game. In the 123 games he played, he managed to put together a 6-21-27 record. And it is impossible to say how his presence in the locker room may have helped what was such a young Winnipeg team at the time. After two seasons with the Jets, Savard returned to Montreal, this time not as a player.

“In one of the more unusual trades in National Hockey League history, the Montreal Canadiens yesterday bargained with the Winnipeg Jets to acquire Serge Savard, and then named him general manager in Montreal,” the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, New York reported on April 29, 1983.

Savard would serve as General Manager of the Canadiens until he was replaced during the 1995-96 season by Réjean Houle. During his time as GM, Savard would add two more Stanley Cup wins to his name in 1986 and then again in 1993—the last time Montreal won a Stanley Cup.

He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1986 and the Canadiens raised his no. 18 jersey to the rafters on November 18, 2006.

Additional Sources:

• Tim Burke, “Savard earns a bow for final curtain call,” The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), Thursday, August 13, 1981, p. 21.
• “Savard calls it quits after 15 season,” The Ottawa Citizen (Ottawa, Ontario), Thursday, August 13, 1981, p. 22.
• “Savard heads for Winnipeg, Jets’ persistence finally pays off,” Red Deer Advocate (Red Deer, Alberta), Thursday, December 10, 1981, p. 5B.
• Tim Burke, “Savard’s return depressing idea,” The Gazette (Montreal, Canada), Friday, December 11, 1981, p. 17.
• “Canadiens ‘trade’ for Serge Savard, appoint him GM,” Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York), Friday, April 29, 1983, p. 2D.