Devante Smith-Pelly Impresses Montreal Canadiens In First Game On Top Line

Devante Smith-Pelly has had a fairly underwhelming career thus far with the Montreal Canadiens. When he was acquired from the Anaheim Ducks on February 24, 2015, most Habs fans were upset over the Canadiens decision to give up on skilled winger Jiri Sekac, who was sent to Anaheim in the deal.

In 42 games with the Canadiens (before tonight) Smith-Pelly had scored just two goals and nine points in 41 games split between this season and last year. That’s a four goal pace over the course of a full season.

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Though it is not exactly the type of production the Habs were hoping for when they gave up a speedy, skilled player to get Smith-Pelly, he came into camp this year in much better shape and had fit in well on a fourth line with Torrey Mitchell and Brian Flynn, as well as Paul Byron at times.

With the Canadiens in a bind on the right side, Smith-Pelly was asked to step up and fill in a big role on this team for the first time this year. Zack Kassian was acquired to be a right winger that could have conceivably fit in on any line. However, he is yet to play a game for the Habs this season thanks to injury, suspension and just downright questionable conduct in September.

Alex Semin was signed to a bargain basement deal as a highly skilled winger who was immediately penciled into a top six role. His $1.1 million deal was a worthy gamble, but he has not fit in on either of the top two lines with the Canadiens and continues to fall deeper into Michel Therrien’s doghouse.

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Making matters much, much worse was Brendan Gallagher being hit in the hand with a Johnny Boychuk blast on Sunday night. Gallagher broke his finger and underwent surgery to repair the damage, and will be out at least six weeks.

With Semin working his way down the lineup, Gallagher injured and Kassian AWOL, Smith-Pelly was thrust into the spotlight, and took advantage in a huge way. Playing on the top line with Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty, Smith-Pelly found himself in a much better situation than lining up next to Flynn and Byron and he certainly made the most of it.

With the Canadiens leading 1-0 early in the second period of tonight’s game, Smith-Pelly drove to the Rangers net and buried a quick one-timer off a pass from Pacioretty. It was a very Brendan-Gallagher type goal, scored by the player who is being forced to fill in for the gritty, two-way winger who is out of the lineup.

Smith-Pelly is not Gallagher, as he just does not have the same amount of touch around the opponent’s goal, but he filled in admirably in his first chance to be a first line winger with the Habs.

Early in the third period, with the reality of playing without Carey Price just sinking in, it was Smith-Pelly who raised the team up with a goal just 29 seconds into the period. Smith-Pelly picked up the puck at the side of the Rangers goal and stickhandled to the front of the crease, opening up goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and shoveling the puck between his legs to make it 3-1.

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It was just the second and third goals of Smith-Pelly’s season, but he’s averaging two goals per game while playing on the Habs top line. It was the right time for a huge game, as the team is scrambling to find wingers to fill in for Gallagher and Semin on the top two lines.

Sven Andrighetto was playing his second game of the season with the big club, and once again looked very good alongside Lars Eller and Alex Galchenyuk. Andrighetto is an undersized winger, but is an extremely good skater, and a very skilled player who fits in naturally with Eller and Galchenyuk.

Andrighetto had 15 points in 17 games with the St. John’s Ice Caps before being called up earlier this week. In two games with the Habs he has impressed with his speed and skill, created several chances and opened the scoring tonight to give the Canadiens an early 1-0 lead in a tough road building.

Next: Huge Win Comes At a Price For Habs

This morning, it appeared the Habs might have zero right wingers to play on the top two lines long term. After a huge performance from Smith-Pelly and a second straight offensive display from Andrighetto, suddenly the Habs have many options, and won’t be forced to make a panic trade in the next few days.