Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Jonathan Drouin, Claude Julien, Marc Bergevin, Dominique Ducharme, Josh Anderson, Tyler Toffoli, Halifax Mooseheads, Joel Edmundson

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — Heading into the start of the 2019-20 season,  Jonathan Drouin was the Canadiens top storyline. He was coming off a year where he registered 46 points in his first 55 games played, and then followed that up with seven points on the board in his last 26 games.

Drouin is certainly grateful that Marc Bergevin made the key acquisitions of Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson, Josh Anderson, and Tyler Toffoli during the offseason. The obvious reason is that they’re all additions that should improve the team. The reinforcements will take some of the spotlight away from Drouin.

Two-Part Season

Similar to the previous year, Drouin’s 2019-20 season was split between a good and a bad portion. He started the season with seven goals and eight assists in 19 games before being sidelined with an upper body injury. The pace of 0.79 points per game would prorate to 64 points in 82 games, which would have set a personal record for him.

When returned back to the ice in February, Drouin was held scoreless for eight games before suffering an ankle injury, which kept him out until the regular season was paused.

“He [Drouin] had a good start to the season, and then he got hurt. He came back at a time of the year where everyone’s playing some of their best hockey, and when you’ve been out for 2-3 months, it’s hard to catch up to these guys, so I think he really struggled,” Claude Julien said in October.

“Unfortunately, he got injured at a moment where he was playing very good last year. It prevented him from ending the season the way he would’ve wanted to,” recently said associate coach Dominique Ducharme.

Strong Post-Season Finish

During the Canadiens post season appearance at the hub city of Toronto, Drouin’s performance resembled his regular season. He was a nonfactor in the series against the Penguins, where his only point was a goal in the second game of the four-game series.

In the first round series against the Flyers, he recorded six assists in the six-game stretch. He was off to a slow start in that series before finishing with strong performances in the last two games before the team’s elimination.

“At the start, he had a bit of difficulty but I liked his second half at the bubble, not just the points, but the way he competed, the way he was ready to go more to the inside,” Bergevin told TVA Sports.

Consistency

The big question mark around Drouin for the upcoming season is his consistency. With the abbreviated schedule, there’s no buffer for him to be a nonfactor. The Canadiens need Drouin to consistently produce offensively to have success.

“As coaches, you always try to encourage your guys and try to make them become as consistent as possible. And we know in a 82-game schedule it doesn’t mean you’re always going to be great, but what you want is an honest effort, you want to see the player trying, and some nights it goes better than others, and you can live with that stuff. With Jonathan that’s what we’re trying to get with him is that consistency in his game,” Julien told NHL’s The Rink Podcast.

“You hope that he’s going to start the season on the right foot. You hope that he’s going to build on that [post-season performance], and try to create some consistency in his game, and that’s all I think that he needs to do. Some of it we can encourage, we can try and really push him to be that, at the same time, there’s a big part of it that has to come from him, and realizing it and then putting in the effort to be that.”

Skill level

There’s not many observers that have any doubts on Drouin’s skillset. He has shown flashes of it throughout his career. In order to have a successful playing career, Drouin needs to bring it on the ice on a consistent basis.

“I think the skill, the talent that he has that we all saw in his draft year, when he went third overall – Tampa Bay saw that – it’s still there, he just has to bring it every night, ” Bergevin told TSN690 in an interview.

In his draft year, Drouin scored 29 goals, and added 79 assists in 46 games with the Halifax Mooseheads. If someone knows about Drouin’s talent is Dominique Ducharme, who was the head coach of the Mooseheads for the 2013-14 season when Drouin recorded 108 points.

“It’s important for him to be active on the ice. We see when he plays with dynamism, when his legs are moving, when he’s near the puck, when he plays in the inside, we see the results that it brings, and Jonathan feels that too,” said Ducharme.

Expectations

I won’t be shocking anyone by saying that the expectations haven’t been met in the three seasons since Drouin’s acquisition. This season, needs to be Drouin’s best season of his young career, by being consistent for the entire year. I wrote the exact same sentence in my column on September 2nd, 2019, and one season later we’re at the same spot.

“Our expectations from him are higher than what he has done so far [in Montreal]. He’s still a young player. I want to see more, I think we will see more, I think [Drouin] has the potential to be more, and it’s going to be up to him to show that,” said the general manager on TSN 690.

“[Jonathan] came to Montreal, and there was a lot of expectations towards him. He said at his golf tournament that he found it hard when he arrived to Montreal. I think he’s gaining maturity, and I expect him to pick up where he left off in the bubble, and make people forget about what they think about that trade,” Bergevin told TVA Sports when asked to reflect on the transaction.

If my projections of the forward lines and the power play units materialize, Drouin will have the opportunity to play with linemates that can help get his name consistently on the scoresheet.

It’s now up to Drouin to put in the required effort.

Canadiens Connection podcast

Current Habs topics were discussed on this week’s episode of the Canadiens Connection. Listen, share and subscribe!