50s flashback: Andre Corriveau

Andre Corriveau with the Montreal Canadiens. Credit: Hockey Hall of Fame

Dick Irvin called him the best breakaway player in all of hockey, but most of us know this smallish forward as nothing more than a footnote in Canadiens history.

Born on May 15^th, 1928 in the tiny town of Grand Mere Quebec, Corriveau was essentially the Martin St. Louis of the 1950’s, an incredibly small forward with speed to burn and passing skills comparable to Adam Oates, Corriveau was known as one of the fastest players in minor league hockey from the late 40s to the mid 1950s. Coming in at a tiny 5’8 and 135 pounds, Corriveau knew much like Martin St. Louis that he had to work extra hard if he was going to make it in professional hockey. However, while St. Louis made it big, as for Corriveau, things didn't quite work out that way. Playing his junior hockey for the Montreal Nationale of the QJHL, or Quebec Junior Hockey League, Corriveau showed incredible promise.

Recording over a point a game in both of his full seasons with the team, including an incredible 79 over a mere 26 games in his final year, to go with 26 points in just 11 playoff games, Corriveau attracted the attention of the Valleyfield Braves, a struggling team in the Quebec Senior Hockey League with an average attendance of just over 1000 people a game in a league where the average attendance was just over 4000.

A dismal team on the ice as well, coming off a season where they registered 8 wins and 31 losses, the Braves were simply looking for an exciting forward who would bring fans to games and give the team a reliable scorer to jumpstart a quite weak scoring team in general. Playing alongside a roster of no name grinders, Corriveau delivered the exciting play the team hoped for, registering an impressive 53 points in just 43 games.

a hockey card of Corriveau with the Valleyfield Braves

 Corriveau would go on to spend the next 5 years of his career with the Braves, Never going under point per game numbers. As the years went on, the team improved, to the point where in 1950-51, the team would finish with a 37-19 record, good for top place in the QSHL. Depsite this, attendance failed to improve much more, never going above 2000 fans a game, in a league where the average attendance was 4000.

After starting out the 1953-54 season with the Braves, Corriveau got called up by the Canadiens around mid-February, after Braves president Arthur Vinet suggested that former Habs GM Frank Selke give Corriveau a chance for at least 3 games, to see what he could do. Despite other offers from the Chicago Blackhawks, among other teams, Corriveau opted for the Habs, getting himself into 3 games in the 1953-54 season, registering one point.

Corriveau would never make it back to the NHL, sadly, as he simply returned to Valleyfield, the team now in the QHL after the Canadiens had bought the QSHL to get, as stated previously, Jean Beliveau. He would stay there for the teams only 2 seasons in the league, continuing his superb play, before moving on to the Montreal Royals, after the braves had closed up shop, returning to the Canadiens system one last time. He would spend 2 more years with the Royals, before retiring from professional hockey at the ripe old age of 28 years old, after his sixth straight all-star campaign.

He would leave as the Braves 2^nd all time leading scorer behind Rosario Joanette, and a host of honors, including QHL MVP in 1956, as well as 9 all-star game appearances split across the various leagues he played in. Corriveau married on the 14^th of May, 1949 to Réjeanne Gagnon in Montreal, Quebec.

I think it’s obvious Corriveau’s size was his biggest weakness, as according to Newspaper clippings from the time, after having attended the Canadiens training camp right out of junior, the team sent him home with words of, “Your too small.”

I would have imagined Corriveau as the perfect expansion player, a guy who could fill the seats. In a sense, he had the same frustrations that hit many smaller NHL journeyman. Great players who were just too small to make it. Still, Corriveau had his moments in the minors and even the NHL, and hey, that’s a big enough splash for a guy that small, right?