Habs News: 2019-20 Montreal Canadiens Season Predictions, Offensive Leaders, MVP, Outstanding Rookie, Disappointment, Likely To Get Traded, Playoffs
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — The pre-season schedule ended for the Canadiens on Saturday with the team finishing with a 5-2 record. Over the last three seasons, the team’s record in the pre-season gave an indication on their record ten games into the regular season.
The Canadiens regular season begins on Thursday night in Carolina against their new rivals, and then on Saturday night, Habs head to the Scotiabank arena to face the Maple Leafs.
It’s that time of the season, where we all look in our crystal balls and make predictions for the upcoming season.
Offensive Leaders
It would be hard to bet against Brendan Gallagher to lead the team in goals. Last season, Gallagher scored a personal high 33 goals surpassing the 31 goals that he scored in the 2017-18 season. I expect him to reach the 30-goal mark once again.
Gallagher will start the season playing on a line with Tomas Tatar and Philip Danault, in hopes that the chemistry between the three of them carries over into this season.
I think Max Domi will lead the team for most points this season for a second consecutive year. Last season, Domi led Montreal the team with 72 points in 82 games.
Based on Saturday’s lineup, it looks like Domi will begin the season on a line with Artturi Lehkonen and Nick Suzuki. Lehkonen didn’t have any difficulty in creating scoring chances last season, but he struggled finishing them. I expect him to increase his offensive numbers playing on that line. I will get into my projections for Suzuki later in this column.
My main concern about the offence is that Gallagher, Domi, Tatar, and Danault all had career high seasons last season, and it wasn’t enough to clinch a playoff spot. Will all those players match their respective numbers or increase them this year?
MVP
As it has been over the last decade, the team’s success will rely on the performance of Carey Price. Since the end of the last season, Price has publicly talked about his desire and his window to win, and I expect him to show that he’s serious in achieving his objective.
Last season, Price had a slow start in the first two months of the season, before we saw him play at elite level. He finished the season with an impressive record of 35-24-6 record, 2.49 goals-against-average, .918 save percentage. Price played 66 games last season as the coaching staff relied on him in the final stretch as the team was battling for a playoff spot.
Outstanding Rookie
I don’t remember the last training camp where so many Habs rookies stood out as much as they did this year. Nick Suzuki, Ryan Poehling, and Cale Fleury earned the right to play in the final pre-season game. All of them will get a chance to play with the Canadiens this season.
In my opinion, Suzuki will be the one that will make the most impact with the team this season. Prior to the start of camp, I projected that Suzuki would start the season in Laval, but as mentioned earlier, he will start the season on the second line with Lehkonen and Domi.
In the pre-season games, Suzuki looked like he belonged in the NHL. Claude Julien said it best during the first week of training camp when he said that there’s always something that seems to happen when Suzuki is on the ice. Suzuki got ice time in the top-six, power play, penalty kill, centre, right wing, and Suzuki looked ready in all situations.
Power Play
It’s almost impossible that the power play gets worse than it was last season, when the team finished 30th in the league with a 13.2 percent success rate. Danault and Suzuki were added to the units, and if the pre-season is any indication, there won’t be much improvement. If the power play continues to struggle, it may end up costing someone their job.
Most Likely to Disappoint
The easy answer to this question is Jonathan Drouin, because I think he has was the biggest disappointment of the pre-season. Julien and Marc Bergevin both stated that they weren’t concerned with his play. There’s no doubt that the team will need Drouin to contribute offensively in order to have success.
Since our expectations from Drouin have been lowered, I will make another selection for this category and state that I think Jesperi Kotkaniemi will have a disappointing second season in the NHL. Kotkaniemi didn’t stand out at camp as he did last year. If his camp last year was identical to this season’s, I don’t think that he would have started the season in Montreal.
Last season, Kotkaniemi had a bad rookie camp and progressed throughout main camp before earning a spot in the NHL. Time is all he might need to get his game back. Kotkaniemi finished last season with 11 goals and 23 assists in 79 games.
Most Likely to Get Traded
For this category, I arbitrarily decided that I will only take into consideration players that have a regular spot in the lineup. My selection would land to Joel Armia. With Suzuki earning a spot in the top-six, I believe that Armia becomes expendable.
Jordan Weal can play on the right side of the third line with Gallagher and Suzuki on the top two lines. We can agree that the organization has a lot of options to play on the fourth line. Julien likes Weal and has been using him on the power play since he was acquired last season.
Armia can score 10 to 15 goals per season, he has a good shot, plays well on both sides of the ice, and can play on special teams. Armia is also under contract next season with a $2.6-million cap hit.
Will they make the playoffs?
This is the million dollar question. The Habs have failed to meet their goal in three of the last four seasons. I think that too many things need to go well in order for them to clinch a playoff spot.
Tampa Bay, Boston, and Toronto are expected to battle once again for the top three seeds in the Atlantic Division, which means Montreal would have to target a wild card spot.
I expect that Montreal’s season will be similar to 2018-19; close and exciting games, and a fight for a playoff spot all the way to game 82.
As mentioned above, all of the top-six forwards need to match their career highs. The three major facets that Bergevin needed to address during the offseason was to improve the power play, upgrade the backup goalie, and find a defensive partner for Shea Weber. Through the pre-season, we haven’t seen any significant indication that any of those areas will be improved.
Excluding the injury to Weber, the team didn’t run into injury problems last season. Will they be able to go through a second consecutive year with minimal injuries?
The way that it stands now, I project that the Canadiens will be outside of the playoff picture when it comes to April. Things will certainly change from now until then, whether it’s due to injuries, trades, or performance by other teams in the conference.
By Chris G., Senior Writer
All Habs Hockey Magazine
Copyright © 2019 Rocket Sports
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