By beating the Buffalo Sabers on Saturday, the Canadian improved his record against clubs currently excluded from the playoffs to 9-3. Losing the next day against the Nashville Predators, his record against playoff-qualified clubs improved to 3-10-3.
That sums up the CH well. A club under construction still short of top players, nevertheless four points from a place in the playoffs despite injuries and the lack of top talent, but still far from aspiring to honors. In short, the Canadian is exactly where we expected him to be in terms of his development.
Montreal has a Grade B top line. At age 24, in his fifth NHL season, Nick Suzuki is producing at a pace of 64 points, similar to his previous seasons.
After producing at a 46-goal pace last year, 22-year-old Cole Caufield is on his way to a 22-goal season. From an efficiency rate of 16.5% in the shots-to-goals ratio last year, he is at 6.7% this season, half of his career average.
The arrival of Juraj Slafkovsky with them a few games ago gave this trio a nice boost, despite a less than successful performance from the 19-year-old against Nashville. Who knows if over the years, the growth of the Slovak, and a recovery of Caufield, will not give the Canadian a first trio worthy of the name? But we’re not there yet.
With the serious injuries suffered by Kirby Dach and Alex Newhook, the Canadian does not have a second line at all. Sean Monahan at left, Jake Evans at center and Josh Anderson occupy that spot by default.
Evans scored his second goal of the season on Sunday. Josh Anderson has just one, in an empty net. Monahan will likely be traded at the trade deadline, but at the rate he’s producing, with 16 points in 28 games, just one point in his last ten games, and a -9 record, he’ll likely fetch a second-round pick and not first.
Christian Dvorak, 5 points in 18 games since his return to play, Brendan Gallagher, 10 points in 28 games, but only 3 in his last 17 games, with a record of -11, and Jesse Ylönen are not much better.
Every dominant team has its top defenseman: Alex Pietrangelo in Vegas, Adam Fox in New York, Charlie McAvoy in Boston, Drew Doughty in Los Angeles, Cale Makar in Denver, Miro Heiskanen in Dallas, Victor Hedman in Tampa.
The Canadian has not yet found his. Mike Matheson, 29, is doing a tremendous job under the circumstances. He is producing at a rate of 55 points this season while he had never amassed more than 31 points in a season before joining the CH.
But his defensive deficiencies do not allow him to reach the status of the greats. His usage average of 25:01 per game ranks him ninth in the NHL, ahead of Kristopher Letang, Quinn Hughes, Roman Josi, Erik Karlsson and Cale Makar, among others. This is way too much in the circumstances.
Maybe Kaiden Guhle will become that defender, but he’s only 21 years old. His offensive skills have yet to be established, but 26 points in 68 career games without ever participating on the power play remains a noteworthy stat.
We have a lot of hope for Lane Hutson, 68 points in just 54 games since his debut at Boston University. He has crazy talent, we have to admit. It remains to be seen whether he will become an offensive specialist in the NHL or a future Quinn Hughes.
David Reinbacher, a right-handed defender, continues his development in the Swiss National League. He was slowed by a knee injury this fall. Let’s see where he’ll be at training camp next year, having just turned 19.
Left-handed defenseman Adam Engström plays in the shadow of Hutson and Reinbacher, but his 11 points in 25 games at Rögle in the Swedish First Division (SEL) is an impressive output for a 20-year-old. Logan Mailloux still has a lot of work to do to improve his defensive game before aspiring to the NHL.
In short, the Canadiens management begged for patience and you have to have it. The CH nevertheless achieves the maximum with the squad in place while awaiting the progression of its young people, in Montreal, Laval, in the junior, collegiate ranks or in Europe.
And next year, in year 3 of the reconstruction plan, we will need a leap forward, perhaps with Hutson, Reinbacher or Engström, the return to health of Dach and, who knows, reinforcement through from a trade or the free agent market. The Canadian will be there.
The Columbus Blue Jackets therefore gave up a first-round pick in 2023 and a second-round pick in 2024 to the Philadelphia Flyers to obtain Ivan Provorov and thus improve their defense. They also increased their payroll by $6 million per year for eight seasons by hiring Damon Severson.
The Flyers, for their part, lightened theirs by jettisoning Kevin Hayes to the Blues while retaining half of his 3.5 million salary, buying out Tony DeAngelo’s contract and letting James Van Riemsdyk slip onto the free agent market.
The Flyers occupy second place in the Metropolitan Division this morning with a record of 15-10-2. The Blue Jackets sit in eighth and last place with a record of 9-16-5.
Shows that hockey is played on an ice rink and not on paper…
