#83 - Yvan Cournoyer

Yvan Cournoyer (Murillo Pyramid Rank = #83)

Adjusted Stats


1963-1964   Mtl         6 GP      5 goals     0 assists     5 points       0.89 PPG
1964-1965   Mtl*       76 GP    9 goals     13 assists   21 points     0.33 PPG
1965-1966   Mtl*       76 GP    21 goals   13 assists   34 points     0.45 PPG
1966-1967   Mtl         81 GP    30 goals   18 assists   48 points     0.60 PPG
1967-1968   Mtl*       71 GP    34 goals   39 assists   73 points     1.03 PPG
1968-1969   Mtl*       82 GP    48 goals   49 assists   97 points     1.18 PPG
1969-1970   Mtl         78 GP    31 goals   41 assists   72 points     0.93 PPG
1970-1971   Mtl*       68 GP    38 goals   37 assists   76 points     1.11 PPG
1971-1972   Mtl         77 GP    50 goals   38 assists   88 points     1.14 PPG
1972-1973   Mtl*       70 GP    39 goals   38 assists   78 points     1.11 PPG
1973-1974   Mtl         70 GP    40 goals   33 assists   74 points     1.05 PPG
1974-1975   Mtl         78 GP    27 goals   41 assists   68 points     0.87 PPG
1975-1976   Mtl*       73 GP    30 goals   33 assists   63 points     0.86 PPG
1976-1977   Mtl*       62 GP    24 goals   27 assists   50 points     0.82 PPG (no Stanley Cup ring for Cournoyer)
1977-1978   Mtl*       70 GP    23 goals   28 assists   51 points     0.73 PPG
1978-1979   Mtl*       15 GP    2 goals     5 assists     6 points       0.41 PPG (no Stanley Cup ring for Cournoyer)

Adjusted Playoff Stats

1964-1965   Mtl*        12 GP    3 goals    1 assist       4 points       0.36 PPG
1965-1966   Mtl*        10 GP    2 goals    3 assists     5 points       0.53 PPG
1966-1967   Mtl          10 GP    2 goals    3 assists     5 points       0.52 PPG
1967-1968   Mtl*        13 GP    6 goals    8 assists     14 points     1.08 PPG
1968-1969   Mtl*        14 GP    4 goals    7 assists     11 points     0.78 PPG
1970-1971   Mtl*        20 GP    9 goals    11 assists   20 points     1.01 PPG
1971-1972   Mtl          6 GP      2 goals    1 assist       3 points       0.47 PPG
1972-1973   Mtl*        17 GP    13 goals  9 assists     22 points     1.30 PPG
1973-1974   Mtl          6 GP      5 goals    2 assists     7 points       1.14 PPG
1974-1975   Mtl          11 GP    5 goals    5 assists     10 points     0.92 PPG
1975-1976   Mtl*        13 GP    3 goals    6 assists     9 points       0.67 PPG
1977-1978   Mtl*        15 GP    7 goals    4 assists     11 points     0.71 PPG 

Career - 1041 GP, 451 goals, 453 assists, 904 points, 0.87 PPG
Career-Highs - 50 goals (71-72); 49 assists (68-69); 97 points (68-69); 1.18 PPG (68-69)
Avg. (15 seasons) - 69 GP, 30 goals, 30 assists, 60 points, 0.87 PPG
Peak Avg. (67-75) - 74 GP, 38 goals, 40 assists, 78 points, 1.05 PPG, 4 Cups

Playoff Career - 147 GP, 61 goals, 60 assists, 121 points, 0.82 PPG
Playoff-Highs - 13 goals (72-73); 11 assists (70-71); 22 points (72-73); 1.30 PPG (72-73)


Accolades - Conn Smythe
All-Star Teams - 4-time 2nd-team
8-time Stanley Cup Champion


The 450 career goals and 900 career points don't leap out at you, and neither does the respectable but hardly record-breaking 0.87 PPG for his career. But Cournoyer earns major points for the team success that he enjoyed, and for being the best player (or co-best, along with Jacques Lemaire) on several Canadiens teams that bridged the gap between the Beliveau era and the Lafleur era.

Cournoyer was the best player in the regular season for the Habs during the 1968-1969 season, when he put up 48 goals and 97 points, excellent numbers for a defensively-responsible right-winger. For a stretch of about seven or eight years, Cournoyer was always one of the Canadiens' top three forwards: Beliveau was fading but still excellent, Lemaire was solid and reliable as always, but Lafleur had yet to blossom into the superstar he would become. In 1973, Cournoyer was third on the Habs with 78 points, but he saved his best for the postseason, posting 22 adjusted points and a +11 in 17 games, good for Conn Smythe honours.

If you look at Cournoyer's peak, it's pretty darn impressive...sort of a poor man's peak Jari Kurri. While Cournoyer may have been a bit of a passenger for the early Stanley Cup victories he enjoyed, as well as the late ones, he was the one who was relied upon during the mid-1970s to let the young Habs know the tradition of excellence that had come before them. No wonder then that Cournoyer was the captain of one of the greatest teams ever assembled, the Habs dynasty that reeled off four straight championships to end the 1970s.

Cournoyer was a decent second-line contributor to three of those championships, but in 1979, he must have felt age catching up to him, and retired midway through the year. The Canadiens still went on to win the championship once more, but as Ken Dryden recounts in The Game, Montreal was never quite the same after Cournoyer...it seemed to signal the end of an era, and others (Lemaire, Dryden himself) soon followed.

With just over 1,000 career games, Cournoyer didn't play long enough to amass the gaudy totals that would keep him fresher in the minds of today's generation and more in the discussion of all-time great right-wingers. But while he played, he was one of the most reliable scorers in the game, a player like Lemaire who embodied the qualities of the winning Montreal teams. Until Lafleur arrived, the Canadiens weren't a team of superstars...they were all stars like Cournoyer who did their job well, and were rewarded with multiple championships.