Montreal Canadiens: What to do With Alex Galchenyuk

Even though it’s the preseason, Alex Galchenyuk is bouncing around the Montreal Canadiens line-up. What will they do with him come October 5th?

School and the NHL are similar in some ways if you think about it. Consider the regular season the process of writing an essay for example, making the preseason that period before you start writing where you brainstorm different ideas. The Montreal Canadiens have had a handful of those ideas come to play these past two weeks.

The only line that hasn’t changed has been the line of Tomas Plekanec, Charles Hudon, and Artturi Lehkonen. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and that’s what Claude Julien has done there. All the other lines have seen some kind of alteration or tweek.

What’s interesting is how many of those changes involved Alex Galchenyuk, Initially, Brendan Gallagher was moved off his line in exchange for Ales Hemsky. There wasn’t any sense of chemistry the way the line was before, but there were sparks of it in the one game they played with the 34-year-old.

The second change had Galchenyuk separated from Phillip Danault, who then played with Paul Byron and Andrew Shaw. That line was really effective for the Montreal Canadiens. So much so that Julien may be doing himself a disservice not to try it again.

If that’s the case, and the Habs continue with those three other lines, where does Galchenyuk play?

Placing Galchenyuk in the Line-Up

It’s a hard question to answer. Literally the only place for him would be on the fourth line. That could be easier to accept depending on who else ends up playing there.

If Julien decides to go with the prototypical fourth line that is just there to win faceoffs, be responsible, and wear out the other team, then Galchenyuk won’t benefit from playing there (Torrey Mitchell and Andreas Martinsen as line-mates). However, if the Montreal Canadiens decide to go with skill on that line then Galchenyuk could thrive there.