Habs News: NHL, Montreal Canadiens, Brendan Gallagher, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Mike Hoffman

ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — In an interview published in Friday’s The Province newspaper, Brendan Gallagher spoke about Devils’ defenceman Ty Smith. The players have trained together for the past four off-seasons, and Smith lived with Gallagher for the past three summers.

Smith will begin his second season in the National Hockey League (NHL), and the two friends are looking forward to facing each other in a regular season game.

“I’ll tell him this now — he’s going to try to smile and joke with me but he won’t get much out of me that day,” said Gallagher. The first match between Montreal and New Jersey is on December 23rd. “Maybe he’ll get a face wash early on, and then I’ll smile at him.”

“I’m looking forward to those games. I know that Brendan will be all over me,” Smith said. “We do it out [summer sessions]. Anytime there’s game-like stuff, some one-on-one or two-on-two battles, we always try to go against each other. We battle pretty hard.”

With Phillip Danault signing with the Kings, and Tomas Tatar joining the Devils, Gallagher will have new linemates to start the season. Gallagher was on a unit with Danault and Tatar since the 2018-19 season.

In 35 regular season games, Gallagher scored 14 goals, and 23 points. He missed six weeks of action after fracturing his thumb. The winger scored twice and added four assists in 22 playoff matches. After the team’s loss to the Lightning, Dominique Ducharme revealed that the veteran played through a groin injury.

“What he brings to the team is not only offensively, it’s his energy, and the way he plays, and the character. He’s a guy you want to have on the ice at any time,” coach said.

Kotkaniemi Re-draft

The Athletic’s Scott Wheeler published on Friday, a re-draft of the 2018 entry draft where the Canadiens selected Jesperi Kotkaniemi third overall. Trevor Timmins projected Kotkaniemi at the time of the selection to be a first or second line center. In the article, Wheeler ranks the forward 10th of the draft class. Sabres defenceman Rasmus Dahlin would be Montreal’s pick at third overall in this exercise.

Last season, Kotkaniemi scored five goals, and 20 points in 56 regular season games. During the playoffs, he scored five goals and added three assists in 19 games.

“We’ve seen progress over the last three seasons. He has nearly 200 games under his belt. At his age, there are a lot of players who haven’t even played a single game yet. He has to use that experience the right way. We like what KK is doing. He has shown a lot of good things. Now, he needs to take a big step forward. We’re working with him. We want him to become a dominant player and to reach his potential,” Ducharme said at the end of the season.

“I think I’m a very different player than I used to be. I was maybe hoping to get back to being the player when I got drafted here, just finding the confidence and being solid out there every night. I’d like to find the recipe for that. If I work hard this summer, I’ll be even stronger next year,” Kotkaniemi said, adding that skating will be his priority in the offseason.

The Finnish native is an unrestricted free agent and remains unsigned for the upcoming season. His offseason priorities likely shifted after news that his father Mikael had an operation to remove a cancerous tumor earlier this month.

Mike Hoffman’s Role

The Canadiens posted a video over the weekend on social media where Mike Hoffman answers fans questions. “I’m more of an offensive player, so I will try to add to the goal scoring, and help the power play out,” responded the forward when asked about his role.

Last season, Hoffman scored 17 goals and 36 points in 52 games with the St.Louis Blues. Seven of his goals were during a power play. In four playoff matches, he recorded one goal.

Montreal is hoping that Hoffman will be able to help the team on the power play. The Canadiens ranked 19th in the NHL with a 19.2 percent success rate in the regular season. During the playoffs, they finished eighth place with 18.9 percent success.

Since the start of the 2015-16 season, Hoffman’s scored 56 power play goals. Only Alexander Ovechkin, David Pastrnak, Leon Draisaitl, and Steven Stamkos have more power play goals during that time frame.

https://twitter.com/CanadiensMTL/status/1428792580075102211

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