| abstract | - Savard played junior hockey with the Montreal Junior Canadiens, then played minor pro with the Omaha Knights and the Houston Apollos. He started playing with the Montreal Canadiens in 1966. In 1968–69, his second full NHL season, he led the Canadiens to a second consecutive Stanley Cup win, becoming the first defencemen to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoffs' most valuable player. He broke his leg and missed the end of the 1969-70 NHL season , which was a major factor in the Canadiens missing the playoffs. The next season he broke his leg again but was able to make it back in the 1971-72 NHL season and after. In seventeen seasons with the Canadiens, Savard played on eight Stanley Cup championship teams: 1968, 1969, 1971, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979. In 1979, he won the Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy for perseverance and dedication to the game. Savard played the last two seasons of his career with the Winnipeg Jets before retiring in 1983. Savard was the second last active player of the Original Six era after Wayne Cashman. The "Savardian Spin-o-rama", which is a quick pivoting turn with the puck done in order to evade opponents, was coined by Danny Gallivan and named after Serge Savard, and not Denis Savard (who was adept at the same manoeuvre) as is often thought.
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