Montreal Canadiens Alex Galchenyuk Could Win Art Ross With More Ice Time

The Montreal Canadiens have a superstar on their team in Alex Galchenyuk. However, he won’t reach his full potential until they start playing him like a superstar.

The Montreal Canadiens were hoping for a franchise center when they selected Alex Galchenyuk third overall in 2012. The American born center was a scoring sensation with the Sarnia Sting of the Ontario Hockey League. However, it was a risk as he had missed most of his draft year with a knee injury.

Galchenyuk had scored 83 points in 68 games as a 17 year old in 2010-11 with the Sting. He went scoreless in two regular season games the following year, but the Canadiens rolled the dice and took him. It was their highest pick since they took Doug Wickenheiser first overall in 1980.

After being drafted, Galchenyuk returned to Junior during the third edition of the NHL lockout. He scored 27 goals and 61 points in 33 games, proving the Canadiens were right to take a gamble on him.

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Galchenyuk had flashes of brilliance immediately after joining the Canadiens for what would be a shortened 2013 season. However, after three seasons in the league he had career highs of 20 goals and 46 points. Not exactly franchise cornerstone numbers.

Galchenyuk keeps getting better every year

The 6’2″, 205 pound center finally broke out last season and reached the 30 goal plateau for the first time. He finished the year with 56 points, but again, the ceiling appeared much higher for the highly skilled forward.

This season, Galchenyuk has once again raised his game to a new level. In 19 contests, he leads the team with seven goals and 19 points. Not only is he carrying the Canadiens offensively, he also finds himself among the league’s leading scorers at the quarter pole of the season.

Currently, Galchenyuk sits seventh in the NHL in points. He is just one point behind Patrick Kane and Steven Stamkos, two back of Tyler Seguin and trails league scoring leaders Nikita Kucherov, Connor McDavid and Mark Scheifele by three.

The frustrating thing for Canadiens fans is, the six players ahead of him in points get far more ice time.

Galchenyuk not playing nearly as much as other top scorers

Galchenyuk averages just 15:50 in ice time per game this season. Of the players in front of him in points, Stamkos averages the next lowest, but plays two minutes per game more than Galchenyuk. Kane plays six and a half more minutes per game than Galchenyuk.

Galchenyuk ranks seventh in points in the NHL, but is 163rd among forwards in time on ice. This places him behind the likes of J. G. Pageau, Joel Ward, Adam Lowry and rookie Zach Hyman among many other lesser players.

Even among Habs centers Galchenyuk does not rank first. Tomas Plekanec has just one goal this season, but is still trusted with 1:13 per game more than the 23-year-old leading scorer of the team.

Part of this can be explained by the fact that the Canadiens are 14-3-2 and have been in a position where they need to protect a lead far more often than they have been pushing for goals. Plekanec is still an excellent defensive center, and it makes sense to put him out there when the team is leading.

Habs may be only NHL team that doesn’t double shift top players when losing

However, if we take a look at the past week, when the Canadiens had a three game losing skid, Galchenyuk’s workload hardly increased. When the Habs lost to the Chicago Blackhawks last Sunday, Galchenyuk played 17:23. This ranked third on his own team behind Andrew Shaw and Max Pacioretty.

The Blackhawks, a team that knows a thing or two about winning, played Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane more than 20 minutes that night.

Two nights later, the Canadiens lost 4-3 in overtime to the Florida Panthers. Galchenyuk was actually below his average ice time when regulation time ended. Thanks to some extra time, he bumped his ice time up to 16:08 for the night.

This was the sixth most time on ice by a Habs forward, and was 11 seconds less than David Desharnais who is having a season worthy of being healthy scratched.

Therrien needs to start treating Galchenyuk like star he is

Canadiens Head Coach Michel Therrien needs to start adjusting and getting his top line on the ice more often. This is especially the case when the team is trailing or tied in the third period. Every other team in the league has their best forwards out there for 18-20 minutes per night. Galchenyuk has played less than 15 minutes on six occasions already this season.

Yet, the Canadiens young star has found a way to still average a point per game. Imagine what he could accomplish if he was getting more than 80% of the ice time that some of the league’s other stars are receiving.

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Galchenyuk has developed into one of the best scorers in the world. If his coach would take notice and play him like a superstar, he could lead the NHL in points this season.