Canadiens Final Report Card: The Depth Players Part One

The Canadiens suffered through a large amount of injuries and were forced to utilize a large amount of their depth.

Depth is incredibly important to the makeup of an NHL team and the Montreal Canadiens found that out the hard way in 2015-16. Injuries mounted and the Canadiens were unable to adequately fill those lost spots with quality NHL depth. This ultimately cost the team any chance at making the playoffs and going on a long run to the Stanley Cup.

Despite the lost season, the Canadiens did receive strong contributions from some of their depth players as well as some surprising success stories.

D Victor Bartley – Grade: C

GP-G-A-PTS: 9-0-0-0 (AHL: 24-1-3-4)

The Canadiens acquired AHL veteran Victor Bartley in a three-team trade in mid-January. The BC native appeared in just 9 games with the Canadiens and another 10 with their AHL affiliate in St. John’s. Bartley was purely a depth player, used solely because the team was down 4 regulars at the time. In Bartley’s incredibly small sample size, he continued a career trend at the NHL level of being a subpar possession player(-2.9 Corsi Relative) and being a negatively valued offensive contributor(-0.2 Offensive Point Share).

RW Mike Brown – Grade: B

GP-G-A-PTS: 14-1-1-2

Shortly after the trade deadline, I wrote an article covering the Canadiens moves and among them, I essentially wrote off Mike Brown as an unnecessary move. After watching him for a few weeks, I wrote another article, pretty much taking back what I said. I also advocated his return and his role with the team. Brown really impressed me with his strong physical presence and overall energy.

In his 14 game sample, Brown showed a rejuvenation of sorts, hitting anything and everything that moved(56 registered hits). He did all of his damage while averaging less than 10 minutes a game. Brown will never be known for his offense but as a 4th line energy-guy, he would be a valuable asset for minimal cost.

LW Daniel Carr – Grade: B+

GP-G-A-PTS: 23-6-3-9 (AHL: 24-10-11-21)

Since going the college route for his playing career, Daniel Carr has done nothing but score. That led to his first taste of NHL action with the Canadiens this season when Brendan Gallagher went down to injury. Carr had a near seamless transition and showed some legitimate scoring capability at the NHL level. Unfortunately, Carr’s season was cut short due to a torn knee ligament.

Despite that initial success, their are some red flags that raise some concerns. Notably, he only averaged 12 minutes a game and he had a semi-high 15.4% shooting percentage. For a comparison, Max Pacioretty and Alex Galchenyuk had 9.9% and 14.9% respectively this season.

C/LW Phillip Danault – Grade: C+

GP-G-A-PTS: 21-3-2-5

Danault was brought over as the secondary piece in the Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann trade at the deadline. In his 21 games with the Canadiens, Danault saw time at both center and left wing. For a player who is viewed more as a future depth piece as opposed to being a key contributor, having position flexibility will work in his favor.

Saying that, in his time with the Canadiens, Danault played much better when lined up at center as opposed to the wing. He showed a vastly improved faceoff ability with a 56% success rate in the circle with Montreal while only winning just 44.2% of his draws in Chicago. He also showed strong possession potential with a 4.6 Corsi Relative rating.

LW Jacob de La Rose – Grade: D-

GP-G-A-PTS: 22-0-1-1 (AHL: 34-7-7-14)

De La Rose was a 2nd round pick of the Canadiens back in 2013 and despite not being 21 years of age yet, he has already logged over 100 pro games in the AHL and NHL. After seeing some initial success in his first year in North America, 2015-16 proved that the big Swedish winger needs more AHL seasoning before making the permanent jump to the Canadiens.

De La Rose showed some positives in the AHL and earned a call up. However, he looked completely over matched while with the Canadiens. He was a terrible possession player(-8.4 Corsi Relative) and showed no offensive game whatsoever. His offense was so bad, he was worth -0.7 Offensive Point Shares and just did not look comfortable. One positive note was that de La Rose continued to show a nice physical aspect to his game(39 hits) and showed an increased awareness to block shooting lanes(19 blocked shots).

D Darren Dietz – Grade: C+

GP-G-A-PTS: 13-1-4-5 (AHL: 61-4-12-16)

After a very successful junior career with the Saskatoon Blades, Dietz was expected to take the AHL by storm and cement himself as a top prospect. After three years in the AHL which were headlined by injuries and an inability to move up the lineup, many have forgotten just how good Dietz was at the WHL level.

Due to injuries, Dietz was called upon to make his NHL debut. Interestingly, despite playing behind players like Morgan Ellis and Joel Hanley in St. John’s, Dietz actually played ahead of them at the NHL level. Dietz showed a real willingness to hit any and all players while also showing some offensive flare. One aspect of his game that he’ll have to work on will be his puck handling as at times, it looked as if Dietz was playing with a grenade on his stick.

C/RW Brian Flynn – Grade: C-

GP-G-A-PTS: 56-4-6-10

Flynn is a member of Marc Bergevin‘s fabled “Depth Squad”, joining players like Torrey Mitchell who were acquired to help shore up the bottom 6. Flynn had a nice initial run with the Canadiens last season but has saw his game trend downwards in 2015-16.

Flynn showed a complete lack of possession ability, posting a bad -7.0 Corsi Relative. He also posted his 4th consecutive season of negative Offensive Point Share rating(-0.3). On a more positive note, Flynn posted a stellar 57.8 faceoff percentage which led all Canadiens players.

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