Hockey Night in CanadaNew Habs assistant GM has had mixed results

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Every NHL scout or general manager leaves a path of past successes or failures from the players they drafted and the players they traded.

Rick Dudley is no different. After weeks of speculation, new Montreal Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin finally got around to appointing the 63-year-old Dudley as one of the franchises assistant GMs. The other, respected incumbent Larry Carriere, also was signed to an extension on Friday.

The Canadiens' hiring of Dudley has been lauded by most. The veteran hockey man, who been a GM with the Ottawa Senators, Tampa Bay Lightning, Florida Panthers and Atlanta Thrashers, is known for his work ethic. You will often hear the phrase "no one watches more hockey than Duds," when others in the hockey world discuss Dudley.

The Canadiens have the third overall selection in next month's NHL entry draft in Pittsburgh. Dudley won't have input at Montreal's draft table in a few weeks because of his knowledge of the Maple Leafs' game plan. Toronto selects two choices after the Habs.

The loyal and demanding fan base hope that Bergevin, Carriere, director of procurement and player development Trevor Timmins and the rest of the scouting staff hit a home run next month.

Dudley has had mixed results in the past 14 years as he bounced around from the Senators to the Lightning to the Panthers to the Chicago Blackhawks to the Thrashers and his one season with the Toronto Maple Leafs last year.

Bergevin, Dudley and the Blackhawks were spot on in 2006 and 2007 with Jonathan Toews (third overall) and Patrick Kane (first overall), and he got it right with the Thrashers choices in 2009 (Evander Kane) and 2010 (Alexander Burmistrov).

But Dudley did not fair as well in his days with Florida and Tampa Bay"

• In Tampa Bay, none of his top two selections in 1999 (Sheldon Keefe, Evgeny Konstantinov), 2000 (Nikita Alexeev, Ruslan Zaynullin), and 2001 (Alexandr Svitov, Alexander Polushin) made an impact.
• Dudley, however, did land defenceman Dan Boyle from Florida for a fifth-round pick.
• In 2002, now with the Panthers, Dudley flipped the first overall pick to pass on Rick Nash and take defenceman Jay Bouwmeester third overall.
• At the 2003 draft, instead of snatching Eric Staal first overall, he again traded the first pick and 73rd selection to the Pittsburgh Penguins for the third pick (Nathan Horton), the 55th pick (Stefan Meyer) and Mikael Samuelsson.
• In 2004, the Panthers chose Rostislav Olesz seventh overall and passed on players like Drew Stafford, Travis Zajac, Mike Green and Cory Schneider.

So like we stated above, Dudley has had mixed results as an NHL executive, and only time will tell if he makes an impact in his seventh stop in Montreal.

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