by Caitlyn Golem, Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine
After spending the summer with your attention turned to baseball, aggressively tweeting #IsItOctoberYet (or just not so patiently waiting for hockey to return) the time is almost once again upon us.
As the new season quickly approaches, there are a number of things for Canadiens’ fans to think about.
This will be the first full season under the watchful eye of coach Claude Julien. It will be interesting to see how he continues to shape the Canadiens’ style of play and how he utilizes the new players Marc Bergevin has acquired to fill the holes in the team’s line-up.
In that regard, one player in particular all fans will have their eyes on is Jonathan Drouin. Drouin was acquired from the Tampa Bay Lightning along with a condition sixth-round pick in the 2018 entry draft in exchange for prospect, Mikhail Sergachev and a conditional second-round pick in the 2018 entry draft. Drouin was the third overall pick in the 2013 entry draft and Sergachev was the ninth overall pick in the 2016 entry draft, thus they are both valuable players.
The Canadiens, as they have been for a few years, were looking to bolster their scoring and Drouin has a great deal of potential in that regard. With the loss of Alexander Radulov to free-agency, Drouin will also have to compensate for the production Radulov would have offered.
When Drouin was traded to Montreal, he was ecstatic, “I’m a hometown guy, so you never really think that day’s going to happen where I’ll actually be playing for the Canadiens. It’s just really surreal, I’m still kind of in shock that it happened.” Of course, any city loves having hometown players but none more-so than Montreal with French-speaking players. The 22 year-old restricted free agent was signed to a six-year $33 million contract shortly after being traded to the Canadiens.
Over the course of 72 games with Tampa Bay in the 2016-2017 season, Drouin tallied 21 goals and 32 assists, giving him a total of 53 points. This point total would have earned him third on the Canadiens last season – behind only Max Pacioretty (67) and Alexander Radulov (54).
On September 11th, Marc Bergevin revealed to the media that they would be trying Drouin at center rather than Alex Galchenyuk. Drouin has not played center consistently since his time in the juniors. Bergevin then went on to deny to the media that he had made the trade to fill the role as the number one center.
“No matter where he plays, I would have made that trade because getting a young player with that skill level, it doesn’t come that often, and especially a French-Canadian kid that wants to be here, wants to be successful, it’s something that I couldn’t pass on.”
It will be interesting to see how the youngster can thrive in the Canadiens’ line-up.
Something else, for fans to watch during this upcoming season is how the Canadiens’ key changes to their line-up pan out. Over the course of the off-season Montreal lost several players, most notably, Andrei Markov, Alexei Emelin, and Alexander Radulov. Having lost such key players, it will be interesting to see how the team fills those gaps with their new additions. Besides the obvious addition of Drouin, Montreal also added the likes of Karl Alzner, David Schlemko, and Ales Hemsky to their line-up.
One player in particular I think fans should be excited for this season is Arturri Lehkonen. During the 2016-2017 campaign, Lehkonen played 73 games with the Canadiens, tallying 18 goals and 10 assists. He did not have a breakout season per say, but perhaps that is what this season has in store for us. My best guess is he will score about 5 more goals than he did last season and rack up about twice the number of assists, but that is pure speculation and only time will tell.
My predictions for the 2017-2018 Montreal Canadiens:
- Montreal will make the playoffs, but it won’t be a breeze. Teams like Toronto have gotten
- Carey Price will play like Carey Price and will to a large extent carry the team.
- Jonathan Drouin will have a great season but won’t yet be the stud number one centerman the team needs.
- Artturi Lehkonen will have another big year.
- Brendan Gallagher will bounce back from his 29 points last year and rack-up 40-something.
From the heart: No matter what happens, I will wear my new Montreal Canadiens’ tattoo with the utmost pride this season.
