Canadiens Final Report Card: Max Pacioretty

In his first year as Canadiens captain, Pacioretty would likely want to have a mulligan as he and the team failed to meet expectations.

On September 18th, 2015, the Montreal Canadiens named Max Pacioretty the 29th team captain in franchise history. He succeeded Brian Gionta and the bar was set high for both Pacioretty and the team in general. With the spotlight firmly set on him, Pacioretty stumbled a bit for the first time since he was 21 and just beginning his NHL career.

Max Pacioretty – Left Wing

Games Played: 82

Goals-Assists-Points: 30-34-64

Pacioretty rather quietly posted his 3rd consecutive season of 30+ goals and 60+ points. Under normal circumstances, that would be widely viewed as a successful and productive season.

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Unfortunately for Pacioretty, he plays in a market that set incredibly high standards on him as the new captain. Through the first 25 games, Pacioretty was meeting those expectations with 24 points(12G/12A).

Then, as it has become the theme for all Canadiens players, December 1st came and the team sunk. Through his next 35 games, Pacioretty posted just 9 goals and 17 points. The Canadiens fortunes as a team did not fare much better as they went 10-23-2, thus proving that if their best player wasn’t scoring, the team wasn’t winning.

Through those first 60 games, Pacioretty saw himself being paired with multiple centers and right wings. He started the year with Tomas Plekanec and Brendan Gallagher then Dale Weise once Gallagher got hurt. The rotation did not stop there as Devante Smith-Pelly, Brian Flynn, David Desharnais and Torrey Mitchell all saw some time with Pacioretty.

Pacioretty began righting the ship on his season on February 27th in a win against Toronto where he recorded 2 goals. It was his first multi-goal game since mid-October and also coincided with the beginning of Alex Galchenyuk‘s hot streak down the stretch. Before long, the two talented players were paired on the Canadiens top line and they showed instant chemistry.

In the final 17 games of the season, all of which came with Galchenyuk as his center, Pacioretty posted 19 points(7G/12A). That strong finish helped boost Pacioretty to his 4th career 30 goal and 60 point season.

Despite recording similar overall numbers that we are accustomed to seeing from #67, his season was not viewed as a success. As the captain of the Canadiens, Pacioretty seemed to stumble a bit due to the added pressure he faced on a nightly basis.

He struggled with consistency on offense while seeing his defensive game take a huge step backwards. After leading the NHL in Plus/Minus in 2014-15 at a remarkable +38, 2015-16 saw that number crash down to a -10 rating.

Even though Plus/Minus is not the best stat to use when judging a player defensively. However, Defensive Point Share also viewed Pacioretty as having a decline defensively from a 3.4 DPS in 2014-15 to a 1.3 in 2015-16. It is hard to explain why Pacioretty saw such a drop off defensively. His possession metrics remained relatively strong although he did see a a 4th consecutive drop off in Corsi Relative.

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As the Canadiens captain, more was expected from Pacioretty but on an overall scale, he continued posting similar offensive numbers. His grade this year is hard to judge due to his regression on defense, which was a highly under-rated aspect of his game just a year ago. At this time last year, I would have given Pacioretty a solid “A” grade.

As it stands now, with his regression defensively, his consistency issues and the added expectations as the captain of the team, his grade takes a hit this year.

Final Grade: B-

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