Cowan: Canadiens' David Savard sets sights on family time, new role with team
Article content
was too emotional to speak with the media in Washington after the Canadiens were eliminated by the Capitals in Game 5 of their first-round playoff series.
Article content
Article content
The 34-year-old defenceman had announced before the playoffs started that he would be retiring at the end of this season, his 14th in the NHL. The 6-foot-1, 235-pound bear of a man teared up during the handshake line with the Capitals after Game 5.
Article content
The Canadiens stayed over in Washington that night before flying back home the next day.
Article content
'I was just kind of enjoying the last time in a great plane with good food,' Savard said about his final charter flight as an NHL player when the Canadiens met with the Montreal media last Friday for the final time this season. 'It's definitely a good way to travel. They did a little something special at the end that I didn't expect.'
Article content
When the Canadiens' flight landed at the Montreal Metropolitan Airport in St. Hubert, it was greeted with a water canon salute from firefighters in honour of Savard. It's something that is normally reserved for pilots making the final flight of their career.
Article content
'It's a tradition and I had the chance to experience it,' Savard said. 'So I think it's just another example of how much support there is from the city, from how they embraced the fact that I played for the Canadiens.'
Article content
Savy a été accueilli par le salut des canons à eau des pompiers de l'aéroport de Montréal après son dernier match dans la LNH 🤝
Savy was welcomed home with a water canon salute from the Montreal airport firefighters following his final NHL game #GoHabsGo | @DesjardinsCoop |… pic.twitter.com/rbOB1tB9tM
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) May 8, 2025
Article content
Playing in 870 career regular-season games and blocking 1,624 shots — including a team-high 180 this season, which ranked eighth in the NHL — took a toll on Savard's body. It showed that the game was starting to get too fast for Savard and he realized it was time to hang up his skates — especially with the number of young defencemen the Canadiens have.
Article content
Article content
'You feel it every day,' Savard said about the beating his body took. 'There's a lot of injuries that keep coming back.'
Article content
Savard hopes to stay with the Canadiens in some sort of coaching or player-development role and it would definitely make sense to keep him around.
Article content
Head coach Martin St. Louis said Savard had already become an extension of the coaching staff while working and playing with the team's young defenceman during a rebuilding phase that started after Marc Bergevin was fired as general manager and Jeff Gorton was hired as the executive vice-president (hockey operations) on Nov. 28, 2021, less than two months into Savard's first season with the Canadiens.
Article content
Article content
Savard signed a four-year, US$14-million contract as a free agent after helping the Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Canadiens in the 2021 Stanley Cup final. The St-Hyacinthe native was excited about returning home with his wife and three children after spending 10 seasons with the Columbus Blue Jackets before being dealt to the Lightning ahead of the 2021 NHL trade deadline.
Article content
'Coming back to Montreal and playing at home in front of friends and family was special,' Savard said. 'Just to be able to finish here is something really special for me. I asked (GM) Kent (Hughes) around the (trade) deadline if there was a possibility to stick around. I don't know if he got anything on the table but, obviously, I was able to stay here and I was really pleased with that. To be able to finish here and make the playoffs, it just makes it so special.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBC
44 minutes ago
- CBC
Mayors from Edmonton and Florida trade bets over Stanley Cup final
Edmonton Mayor Amarjeet Sohi and Mayor Mike Ryan of Sunrise, Fla., have renewed their friendly rivalry as the Oilers and Panthers are back in the NHL's Stanley Cup final for the second consecutive year.
CBC
an hour ago
- CBC
Bob Probert's family helps open Tecumseh health care campus in his name
Family members of the late Detroit Red Wings enforcer Bob Probert celebrated what would have been his 60th birthday on Thursday by helping open the Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare (HDGH) Tecumseh campus named in his honour. The Bob Probert Tecumseh Campus offers specialized outpatient programs, including cardiac wellness, rehab outreach, outpatient rehab services and geriatric services, according to a news release from HDGH. Probert's widow, Dani Probert, said the official opening was more emotional than she expected it to be. "Typically on Bob's birthday, we like to celebrate quietly, privately," she said. "The kids and I are sitting with his favourite music and eating all of his favourite foods. And today, it seemed so appropriate to be with the community at an event like this. … I think the community of Windsor-Essex has been so amazing with helping us in the grieving process over 10 years. So it seemed really special to be with the same people after all these years to spend his birthday." Bob Probert died in 2010 of a heart attack at the age of 45, eight years after his retirement from the National Hockey League. A feared enforcer and one-time all-star His 16-year career with the Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks earned him a reputation as a feared enforcer who accumulated 3,300 penalty minutes – the fifth-highest total of all time. He also racked up 384 points, including 163 goals, and earned an All-Star nod during the 1987-88 season. For a decade after his death, his family helped organize the annual Bob Probert Ride, a fundraising motorcycle poker run in his honour, to raise money for health care. "The ride has achieved a lot over the years," Probert's daughter, Brogan, told the audience at the opening. "Since that very first meeting, we were able to support the cardiac cath lab on Ouellette, provide exercise equipment to the Petro Family Cardiac Wellness Centre on Prince Road, and now the Bob Probert Tecumseh campus will officially open. The impact that this campus will have on our community is greater than we originally had anticipated. It's incredible." The president and CEO of Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare said the campus has already seen around 700 patient visits since its soft opening on March 3. And there's been no reduction in the patient volume at the main campus on Prince Road, a spokesperson added. That demand is prompting the organization to think about expanding, Bill Marra said. "I've been in the public service for 37 years in a variety of leadership roles," he said. "This is one of the most grassroots community-based success stories I've ever been a part of – the family coming together over a catastrophic event, donors from a wide spectrum of corporate citizens, private citizens, a hospital institution, the Town of Tecumseh, organized labour. Think about that formula and look at where we're at today."
Global News
an hour ago
- Global News
ANALYSIS: It's been 32 long years since a Canadian team won the Stanley Cup
You've heard it time and time again. It's been 32 years since a Canadian-based team was able to skate around the ice carrying the Stanley Cup. And here we are, with one game done and another one to be played Friday night in Edmonton, with Canada's last hope now just three games away from the ultimate goal. Thirty-two long, frustrating years. Story continues below advertisement As a country of 40 million, we can proudly say it's our passion for hockey and for our local teams that makes the NHL tick. We have kept the NHL relevant. And even more emphatically, Wednesday's first game of the Stanley Cup final between the Oilers and Florida Panthers was viewed by 4.5 million Canadians. That's two million more viewers than watched south of the border, in a country with a population eight times larger. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy And did you know that the TV ratings for each of the seven Canadian teams are better than any U.S.-based team? Teams like the Winnipeg Jets have better ratings than Boston, New York, Detroit and Chicago. It's hard to imagine. Oh sure, there are great franchises and great stories amongst the 25 teams based in the United States. But understand, this truly is our country's league. With almost half of the players Canadian, and so much of the business success around the NHL driven by Canadian markets and Canadian dollars, it's important to know that we treat this league differently than the other major pro sports leagues. Story continues below advertisement Yes, it's a business — big business and getting bigger all the time. But in our country, hockey is a public trust. For sure, the expectation of any or all of the fan bases in Canada is to win, but fans invest more than money. We feel the anguish of every loss, the joy of every goal, the pain of every hit. We don't watch hockey, we live it. That's why 32 years feels oh, so long. And there are still no guarantees that the streak won't get longer.
