Below is an excerpt from the SI.com article by one of my favorite sports writer (and ex-Gazette writer), Michael Farber who discusses the NHL quiet top 5 MVPs of their teams:
No. 5: Roland Melanson, Montreal Canadiens goaltending instructor
Melanson has no system that can be attached to him like tin cans on the bride and groom’s car. He simply gets results.
Melanson, who had a middling NHL career, helped José Théodore win the Hart Trophy in 2002. (Théodore then took a victory lap, wasting his time and talent; Melanson’s failure to rebuild him back into a Vézina Trophy after the goalie wandered away is the one blemish on his record.) Melanson also helped turn Cristobal Huet, a former backup in Los Angeles, into a legitimate NHL No. 1, which led to the four-year, $22.5 million contract that Huet signed in Chicago after a fabulous late-season stretch last spring with Washington.
Now Melanson is molding a prodigy, Carey Price, while also developing another young goaltender, Jaroslav Halak, who is capable of pushing the preternaturally calm Price. Unlike the big-name Allaire brothers, Melanson’s work with goalies has gone unnoticed everywhere, of course, but Montreal
Melanson has had as many duds as studs in his years as a coach with the Habs.
He came here at the same time as Jocelyn Thibault and Jose Theodore arrived. Also the same time as they let less highly regarded Tomas Vokoun go for nothing in the waiver draft.
Vokoun has turned out to be better than both of Melanson’s “proteges” even though he was an 11th round draft pick or something, and the other two were high profile high draft choices.
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