Habs News: Montreal Canadiens, NHL, Phillip Danault, Marc Bergevin, Claude Julien, Max Domi, Trade, Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi
ROCKET SPORTS MEDIA | LAVAL, QC. — When Phillip Danault was acquired by Montreal on February 26th 2016 from the Blackhawks, he was just getting his National Hockey League (NHL) career started, having played 32 games.
To make the acquisition, the Canadiens retained 30 percent of Dale Weise’s salary and sent him to Chicago with Tomas Fleischmann in exchange for Danault and a second-round draft pick that Montreal ended up selecting Alexander Romanov. Chalk this trade under the good column for Marc Bergevin.
“Phillip Danault is a young and gifted player who will be part of our core group of young forwards for many years to come. I am very pleased to have him join our organization. As a member of the Blackhawks management group, I was instrumental in the selection of Phillip in the first round of the 2011 NHL Draft,” said Bergevin at the time of the transaction.
Evolution of Role
Danault started his career in Montreal playing in a bottom-six role during Michel Therrien’s tenure behind the bench. At his arrival, Danault would alternate between the fourth-line center behind Alex Galchenyuk, Tomas Plekanec, and David Desharnais or as a third-line winger.
Three weeks before being relieved of his duties in early 2017, Therrien moved Galchenyuk off the first line and slotted Danault in between Max Pacioretty, and Alex Radulov. Claude Julien when rejoining the organization kept the trio together for the balance of the season.
At the start of the 2017-18 season, Jonathan Drouin got the opportunity to be Pacioretty’s centre. Both Drouin and Danault missed time that year due to injury, as result, Danault’s role would change between the top three lines.
In his first three seasons with the Canadiens, Danault averaged 0.45 points per game played, with 15:31 of ice time. He had a 52.5 percent faceoff success rate, and was also playing regularly on the penalty kill.
Best Years
Julien has a tendency of keeping his line combinations stable, and tweaking them occasionally. Since the 2018-19 season, Phillip Danault, Tomas Tatar, and Brendan Gallagher has been the trio that Julien has used the most often as a unit.
The three players have each had their best seasons since they were united. They have arguably been one of the top lines in the National Hockey League (NHL) since the 2018-19 season when it comes to generating offence. In 2019-20, their line finished third in the NHL with 36 goals for, and from all the lines that played at least 300 minutes together, they finished first in Corsi and second in Fenwick.
Danault recorded a career high 53 points in 2018-19, and with 47 points in 71 games in 2019-20, he was on pace to match his career high when the season was paused. This represents 0.66 points per game played, an increase of 0.21 since centering Tatar and Gallagher, and has averaged 18:17 of ice time.
“We have excellent chemistry, I love playing with Tatar and Gallagher. We show up every night, and we give our team a good chance to win every night,” spoke Danault about his line at his end of year media availability.
Since the start of the 2018-19 season, Danault was Julien’s key player on the penalty kill and as a result led the team for the most minutes played in those situations. His team-leading 55.1 faceoff winning percentage resulted to the coach trusting him for 1,206 draws in the defensive zone. Only Bo Horvat, Ryan O’Reilly, and Anze Kopitar have taken more faceoffs in their own zone than Danault.
“Phil [Danault] is a great two-way player. I’ve been fortunate enough to be his linemate. He did such a tremendous job on our line,” spoke Tatar about Danault. “I don’t think he’s getting a lot of credit for offensive stuff for what he’s capable to do because we are mostly using him for defensive side of the game. He’s the reason why the line was clicking as well.”
Danault’s two-way play has received some attention from around the league. He finished eight place in 2018-19 voting with 80 points (31 total votes), and sixth place in 2019-20 with 175 points (72 total votes) for the Frank J. Selke trophy that’s selected by the Professional Hockey Writer’s Association. The trophy recognizes the forward who best excels in the defensive aspects of the game.
New Role
The Canadiens top line didn’t produce offensively in the Toronto bubble, which forced Julien to make changes for the start of the fourth game of the qualifying series against the Penguins. For the remainder of the postseason, Nick Suzuki and Danault alternated playing in the middle of Tatar and Gallagher.
When Suzuki was on the first line, Danault was slotted on the third line with Artturi Lehkonen and Paul Byron as his wingers. Danault and Lehkonen have chemistry together as they have been the top penalty kill unit for the last two seasons. The trio did an effective job facing the opposition’s top players in the postseason.
In the hub city, Jesperi Kotkaniemi played at his highest level that we have seen him with a Canadiens jersey. “I love to produce and I want to continue improving my offensive game. I really liked my role the past few years. I know I’m able to get to another level, so I don’t know if I want to limit myself to just a defensive role. I want to improve every year,” said Danault when asked if he was ready to have a different role.
What’s Next?
Elliotte Friedman reported this week that Montreal is checking out the value of Danault in the trade market. I think it makes sense for Bergevin to evaluate the interest for his player. In my books, a general manager should have no untouchables on his roster.
From a Canadiens perspective, they need to build on the experience that Suzuki and Kotkaniemi obtained in the postseason and give them key roles next season as the top centers.
Danault is entering the final year of his contract, which carries a cap hit of almost $3.1-million. The two sides will be able to negotiate a new deal as of October 9th. When he met the media at the end of the postseason, Danault mentioned that his role will be a factor in deciding whether he will test the free agency market.
“In today’s hockey, you need that everyone is able to produce,” answered Julien when asked about Danault’s role. “There’s no question that I go to Philip Danault and ask him to stop scoring goals and ask him only to defend. Since I came here, Philip has played most of the time against the opposition’s best trio. Philip is able to play good hockey at both sides of the ice, and that’s what I expect to see from him. I hope it will continue.”
I don’t blame Danault for not wanting his role to change, especially not on his contract year. As mentioned earlier, he’s in his peak right now when it comes to producing offensively, and generally speaking, offensive production tends to result into a bigger contract for forwards.
In my opinion, the ideal role for Danault would be as a third line center and continue being assigned on the top penalty kill unit. He would also be able to replace short term in the first two-lines if Suzuki or Kotkaniemi need to miss time or on a slump.
If both sides are far from reaching a deal for a new contract, Bergevin has no choice but to look to trade Danault.
Canadiens Connection podcast
These issues and other current Habs topics were discussed on this week’s episode of the Canadiens Connection. Listen and subscribe!
By Chris G., Senior Writer
All Habs Hockey Magazine
Copyright © 2020 Rocket Sports