by Corey Desormeaux , Staff Writer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

OTTAWA, ON. — Well folks, it’s free agency eve, one of the most exciting times of the year!  Tons of players will find new homes, while others will stay put.

After the draft wrapped up on Saturday, some Habs fans were upset that the Montreal Canadiens weren’t more aggressive in improving their roster.  Marc Bergevin addressed the media with a clear statement that he and his colleagues are pleased with what they have moving forward.  However on Sunday, the Montreal Canadiens announced that they had placed P.A. Parenteau on waivers for buyout purposes.  On Monday, the Habs made the move official.

This move has come with mixed reviews.  What we can all agree on though is that the transaction saves cap space and fans should be prepared for more cap shedding as the team needs room for Alex Galchenyuk’s new contract and the potential to bring in new players via free agency.  I few weeks ago I wrote about Parenteau’s uncertain future with the team and discussed some viable internal and external solutions to the right wing position.

Anyway, onto the purpose of this article…

As I was scrolling through some analytics over the weekend I began comparing Lars Eller’s limited powerplay opportunities to the primary powerplay centremen on the team, Tomas Plekanec and David Desharnais. Through my research, it seems clear that Lars Eller has the ability to improve the Canadiens abysmal powerplay, and here’s why.

Earlier this month, I wrote about the true value of Lars Eller, as he far too often receives the brunt of  blame for the Habs’ inability to generate more offence.  In the piece I examined his progression as a player into the defensive role that he has been tasked with playing.  I wrote about Michel Therrien’s deployment of Eller and touched briefly on Eller’s lack of powerplay opportunities and wanted to dig a little deeper.

Lack of Opportunity

A good indication of opportunity is time on ice (TOI).  Let’s see where Eller’s powerplay TOI per game and powerplay TOI percentage lines up against Plekanec and Desharnais.

It’s clear that Lars Eller isn’t given much opportunity to play on the powerplay at all.  When considering the total amount of powerplay time the Montreal Canadiens had this season in the games in which he played, Eller played under 10 percent of it.

Shots

The most interesting finding or maybe I should say concerning is when I took a look at each players shot count.  The Montreal Canadiens took 328 shots on the powerplay last year, a full shooting chart courtesy of SportingCharts.com.

Shot totals for each player in this discussion:

Yes, you read that correctly.  Desharnais put a total of just nine shots on net.  Lars Eller who played significantly less on the powerplay last season managed to put seven on the net, just two less than Desharnais.  Plekanec, perhaps the most comparable to Desharnais when considering ice time, put 38 shots on net, tied with Pacioretty for second amongst forwards with powerplay shots (Gallagher led with 42.)

For the amount of time Desharnais spends on the powerplay, he has to generate more shots.  Sergei Gonchar, Nathan Beaulieu, and Parenteau are just a few of the players that put more powerplay shots on net than Desharnais last season, all of which had substantially less opportunity.

Desharnais is well known as a pass first player, but for the Habs to be more effective on the powerplay they need more offensive threats. With more opportunity, it’s fair to assume that Eller would put more pucks on the net than Desharnais.

Some might say that teams need a balanced approach and Desharnais can setup P.K. Subban and Pacioretty better than anyone. Well, it hasn’t worked.

Take a look at the shot totals for some players on the top powerplay units in the league:

Washington

Detroit

Comparing Desharnais to Alex Ovechkin is unfair.  What I am trying to show with the chart above is that good teams take a balanced approach to shooting. Players above with comparable opportunity to Desharnais are Tomáš Tatar and Gustav Nyquist, who you can see put a healthy amount of more shots on net than Desharnais.  Evgeny Kuznetsov managed to put 27 shots on net with considerably less time than Desharnais.

Face-offs

Not much to say here other than puck control is a key factor in generating offence on the powerplay.  Face-off wins are crucial to puck control and therefore furthers the case for Eller to be a key component of the powerplay.  Eller won 51.49 percent of his face-offs last season, Desharnais won 50.43 percent and Plekanec won 51.22 percent.  The advantage on the face-off dot is slim, but any little bit can help.

Conclusion

Personally, I would remove Desharnais from the powerplay and replace him with Eller.  Nine powerplay shots all season long with first-unit powerplay opportunity isn’t enough.  Justifying Desharnais’ powerplay time because of chemistry with Pacioretty isn’t enough either.  Pacioretty finished third on the team in powerplay shots.

Lars Eller isn’t the only answer to the Habs powerplay struggles.  He could however make a positive impact based on the information above and could go a long way in developing his offensive confidence.  We’ve all seen his ability to score, and what better way to get Eller going than providing him with odd-man opportunities?

What are your thoughts on replacing Desharnais with Eller on the powerplay?