Gilbert Perreault: The Forgotten Frenchman

He was again rushing end to end and Gretzky and Lafleur scrambled to keep up. Perreault was ready to lead Canada to international hockey victory and be accorded the MVP honours he missed out on in 1976.

Then in the fourth game of the tournament, Gretzky dove to draw a penalty against the Swedes and rolled up Perreault’s ankle, breaking it. Though Gilbert was out of the tournament, Canada still seemed destined for victory.

They crushed the Soviets 7-3 without Perreault to end the round robin and then beat the US 4-1 in the semifinal.

Unfortunately, the Canadian team without Perreault could generate no offense in the final against the Soviets. The green unit shredded Liut in the final and handed Canada one of their worst international hockey defeats of all time, an 8-1 thrashing. It would be little solace to Perreault that he was chosen as the tournament first all-star center.  

That was his last crack at international play. He had 90 points in 73 games in 1983-84 but his game was faltering and his blistering speed failing. He was not chosen to be on the victorious 1984 Canada Cup team.

His career began to wind down.

He played 20 games in 1986-87 in order to insure he got the best pension possible. He had 16 points in those 20 games.

Perreault retired as the sixth leading scorer in NHL history. He had 512 goals and 814 assists in 1191 games. He had another 103 points in 90 playoff gamers. He never scored 50 goals. He never won a Stanley Cup or an Art Ross Trophy or a Hart trophy or a Conn Smythe.

He won a Canada Cup and should have been MVP of it but he wasn’t. He perhaps could have won a second and been MVP if Wayne Gretzky hadn’t rolled over his ankle.

Guy Lafleur had 560 goals and 793 assists in 1127 games. His playoff record was significantly better. Lafleur had 58 goals and 76 assists in 128 games. He scored 50 goals six times and 60 once. He had more than 120 points five years in a row and he won three scoring trophies, two MVP awards, and one Conn Smythe.

Dionne had the best career stats of the trio, finishing with 731 goals and 1040 assists in 1348 games. He’s fifth all-time for points scored in the NHL now. He also scored 50 goals six times. He won one scoring title, tying with Gretzky.

When I saw these three players playing together on the international stage against the best players in the world, however, Perreault was the best of the bunch.

Dionne rarely got to play internationally, and he never really excelled. Lafleur had good and bad moments and generally did well internationally, but Perreault was faster than Lafleur and better with the puck at speed. Lafleur had a great shot and played on better teams, but I’d say Gilbert Perreault was a better hockey player than either one and perhaps deserves more consideration than he gets when the greatest of all time are spoken of.  

He was one of the best skaters I’ve ever seen, certainly in a class with or above Lafleur in his prime, a young Gretzky, and an old Bobby Orr. He was better with the puck than Lafleur and on his own was one of the most dominant one-on-one players I’ve ever seen, again like Orr, mostly because of his speed.

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