While the Montreal Canadiens only have three players participating in the 2025 World Championship, former Habs are also involved. On Tuesday afternoon, Mike Matheson and Canada took on France and a pair of former Canadiens organization members.
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Behind the French bench stood former Canadiens goaltender Cristobal Huet, who is now an assistant coach for France. The Frenchman spent part of three seasons in Montreal after being acquired from the Los Angeles Kings alongside Radek Bonk for goaltender Mathieu Garon and managed to steal the number one job away from Jose Theodore.
In 137 games in the Canadiens’ net, he kept a 58-39-13 record, with a 2.53 goals-against average and a .920 save percentage while also posting 11 shutouts. He was traded to the Washington Capitals for a second-round pick at the 2009 draft at the trade deadline of the 2007-08 season when Montreal felt it was time to give rookie netminder Carey Price the reins.
Huet would finish the year in D.C. before signing a four-year pact with the Chicago Blackhawks. Unfortunately for him, he would eventually lose the starter role to Antti Niemi, but he still became the first Frenchman to get his name engraved on the Stanley Cup, even if it was as the backup.
Due to cap constraints, the Hawks loaned Huet to Fribourg in Switzerland the following season, and he never made it back to the NHL. When he first skated in the NHL, Huet became just the second French national to do so after Philippe Bozon. Interestingly, in this World Championship, he is coaching Bozon’s two sons, Kevin and Tim.
The latter was also once a member of the Habs’ organization. He was drafted 64th overall in the 2012 draft but never made the big club. He had a significant health scare when he caught Meningitis in March 2014, he lost 40 pounds, had trouble speaking and needed to re-learn to walk.
He was limited to two seasons in the Habs’ development system, skating with the St. John’s IceCaps for 41 games before being demoted to the ECHL with the Brampton Beast. After three seasons in the minors, Bozon returned to Europe and spent the last eight seasons playing in Switzerland’s League A.
Unfortunately for Huet and Bozon, France suffered a 5-0 loss against Canada.
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