When Canadiens fans see No. 30 on the back of a sweater there’s one name that comes to mind: Chris “Knuckles” Nilan.
Before Thursday night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche, 18 players had worn No. 30 with the Canadiens — but none longer than Nilan, who wore it from 1980-92, including the 1986 Stanley Cup season.
On Thursday night, goalie Cayden Primeau became the 19th to wear No. 30 when he made his NHL debut.
“Seeing No. 30 coming out of mothballs is a good thing,” Nilan said Thursday afternoon after finishing his Off the Cuff TSN 690 Radio show. “Back in circulation. They’re certainly not going to retire it, so you might as well use it.”
Nilan wasn’t a Hall of Famer, but he does hold a couple of Canadiens records that will never be broken: 2,248 career penalty minutes (Lyle Odelein ranks second with 1,367) and penalty minutes in a season with 358 in 1984-85. Nilan also scored 21 goals and added 16 assists that season.
Twelve players wore No. 30 before Nilan and the first nine were all goalies, including Gerry McNeil and Gump Worsley. Nilan was given the number when he got called up from the AHL’s Nova Scotia Voyageurs during the 1979-80 season.
“It was a call-up number at the time because the goalies didn’t wear it,” Nilan recalled about Bunny Larocque wearing No. 1, Denis Herron No. 32 and Richard Sévigny No. 33 at the time. “I think (centre) Rick Meagher wore it before me and a couple of other guys who got called up. Anyways, that’s the one they gave me, No. 30. I wanted to change it because it was a goalie’s number. But my father had bought a jersey with No. 30 on it already. I was talking about changing it and he told me: ‘Keep it and make something out of it.” I guess I did.”
Nilan grew up in Boston wearing No. 9, but not because of Canadiens Hall of Famer Maurice “Rocket” Richard.
“It was because I liked (the Bruins’) Johnny Bucyk,” Nilan said. “But, obviously, that wasn’t there in Montreal. In college I had No. 9, then I got hurt and they gave it away my first year. I got hurt off the ice in a fight — that’s why they gave it away. I ended up with 18 in college.”
Five other Canadiens wore No. 30 after Nilan and before Primeau: forwards Turner Stevenson and Jean-François Jomphe, followed by goalies Mathieu Garon, David Aebischer and Peter Budaj.
Primeau made a quick rise to his NHL debut after being selected by the Canadiens in the seventh round (199th overall) at the 2017 NHL Draft. Last season, he won the Mike Richter Award as the top goalie in NCAA hockey after posting a 25-10-1 record with a 2.09 goals-against average, a .933 save percentage and four shutouts with Northeastern University. Primeau started this season with the AHL’s Laval Rocket, posting a 7-4-1 record with a 2.58 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage before getting called up by the Canadiens. Primeau wore No. 31 — the same number as Carey Price — at Northeastern and with the Rocket.
“He’s just calm, he’s square,” Canadiens coach Claude Julien said about the 6-foot-3, 198-pound Primeau. “A lot of goalies that you like just seem to be in the right position I would say most of the time. He’s one of those guys that just seems to be square and in the right position, makes the right saves. He doesn’t look like a guy who’s scrambling to get back in position.”
Primeau could be the Canadiens’ goalie of the future, although that’s a difficult spot to be in when Price has six more seasons after this one remaining on his eight-year, US$84-million contract. The Canadiens aren’t going to have the young prospect sit on the bench for extended periods as a backup and Primeau is probably headed back to Laval after next week’s back-to-back games against the Penguins Tuesday in Pittsburgh and against the Ottawa Senators Wednesday at the Bell Centre.
“I remember in (training) camp I didn’t know he was only 20 years old,” Canadiens defenceman Ben Chiarot said about Primeau. “He’s pretty confident. He’s a big kid, takes up a lot of the net. He’s here for a reason. He’s a good goalie and we’re expecting him to do the job for us. He seems like a good, quiet, confident kid. … You can see he’s comfortable with what he’s doing in the net. That’s all you want as a defenceman is someone that you know has confidence in what they’re doing back there.”
There’s one big reason why Nilan was happy to see Primeau wearing his old number: he also played for the Northeastern University Huskies. The school is located on Huntington Ave. and the team is known locally as the Huntington Hounds.
“He’s a Huntington Hound and I’m a Huntington Hound and it’s nice if it’s going to someone it’s going to a guy who played at Northeastern, where I did,” Nilan said. “I think it’s pretty cool.”
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