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TSN Director of Scouting

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The Montreal Canadiens burst out of the gate like few teams in NHL history, winning nine straight games on the strength of phenomenal goaltending, a terrific four-line game and an improved offence.

At the quarter mark, Montreal is top five in goals per game, goals against average, power-play efficiency, penalty-killing efficiency and 5-on-5 play. They are a straight A team that gets bumped to A-plus overall.

Below are the Canadiens’ individual player grades.

Three factors were considered in assigning grades: performance, results and expectations, as framed by age, previous performance and cap hit/contract average annual value (AAV). Skaters must have appeared in a minimum of 10 games and goalies, five, to be graded.

Spotlight Player Grade: Montreal has the distinction of boasting three A-plus players, two of which are hardly surprising – reigning Hart Trophy winner Carey Price and former Norris Trophy winner P.K. Subban. What may come as small surprise is that 5-foot-9 winger Brendan Gallagher is shoulder to shoulder with them on the Montreal report card.

Gallagher has developed into one of the NHL’s most industrious and impactful players, earning a place on Team Canada’s World Cup radar. The whirling dervish is not only effective, he is cost-effective, delivering near point-per-game production (9-10-19 in 22 games) at a $3.75-million cap hit.

Gallagher is in the middle of everything – including the crease area with great frequency – and most definitively providing maximum bang for the buck. Gallagher’s no guts, no glory game put him in harm’s way Sunday when he fractured two fingers blocking a Johnny Boychuk slap shot. The injury put an end to a seven-game point streak and sidelined Gallagher indefinitely.

Editor’s Note: Follow TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button at  @CraigJButton and join the discussion on his Interim Report Cards.

 

Grading System

A  Excellent
B  Very Good
C  Satisfactory
D  Poor
F  Failing
Inc. Incomplete

 

Canadiens' Grades By Player

 
               
Goalies Grade Age AAV W L OT Sv%
Carey Price A 28 $6.5 m 9 2 0 0.933
Mike Condon B+ 25 $575 k 7 2 2 0.913
Defencemen Grade Age AAV GP G P +/-
P.K. Subban A+ 26 $9.0 m 22 1 19 9
Andrei Markov A 36 $5.6 m 22 2 17 5
Jeff Petry B 27 $5.5 m 22 3 9 5
Nathan Beaulieu B- 22 $1.0 m 22 2 7 5
Alexei Emelin C 29 $4.1 m 17 0 2 4
Tom Gilbert C 32 $2.8 m 22 0 1 10
Forwards Grade Age AAV GP G P +/-
Brendan Gallagher A+ 23 $3.8 m 22 9 19 7
Max Pacioretty A 26 $4.5 m 22 11 20 8
Tomas Plekanec A 33 $6.0 m 22 7 20 8
Tomas Fleischmann A 31 $750 k 22 7 15 8
Dale Weise A 27 $1.0 m 22 9 14 8
David Desharnais B 29 $3.5 m 22 7 17 7
Torrey Mitchell B 30 $1.2 m 20 5 10 5
Alex Galchenyuk C+ 21 $2.8 m 22 3 13 1
Lars Eller C+ 26 $3.5 m 22 6 7 -2
Brian Flynn C 27 $950 k 22 2 5 2
Paul Byron C 26 $900 k 10 2 3 3
Devante Smith-Pelly C- 23 $800 k 21 1 6 1
Alexander Semin F 31 $1.1m 14 1 4 1