Montreal Canadiens: Was Alexander Radulov right about Max Pacioretty?
The Montreal Canadiens losing Alexander Radulov was tough, and although many believed it led to Max Pacioretty’s decline, he doesn’t think so.
The Montreal Canadiens had three goals for the 2017 offseason. Extend Carey Price, extend Alexander Radulov, and extend Andrei Markov. Only one of the two happened, and the Habs starting goaltender will be entering the first year of that eight-year extension this season.
To blame the entirety of the Habs performance this past season on the departure of Radulov and Markov is tough and in some respects unfair. A lot of things came together that didn’t work in Montreal’s favour. Goaltending was one of them, but a significant portion was the team’s inability to convert on scoring chances as frequently as they wanted to.
That wasn’t a problem for Brendan Gallagher and Paul Byron who finished the year with 31 and 20 goals respectively. However, Max Pacioretty scoring 17 was disappointing.
The 29-year-old is a go-to 30-goal player, so seeing him put up fewer than 20 was unusual. Was it only bad luck? Maybe, but it could also tie into the fact that Pacioretty was trying to change his game a bit after the Radulov departure or just the Claude Julien system as a whole.
The Radulov departure in of itself has been one of the theories behind Pacioretty’s departure this season. The Russia native was a dynamic piece in Montreal’s top six in 2016. He was relentless on the puck doing whatever he could to win battles along the board and set up plays for his linemates. Pacioretty was the benefactor of a handful of those.
Radulov was interview by R-Sports where one of the topic points was Pacioretty. He mentioned that he was privy to the theories that his departure led to the poor performance disagreeing with it entirely.
Re: Pacioretty’s production declining because he was gone: “I read about that, and I totally disagree. He used to score 30 goals before I was there. Last season was bad, but everyone has a down year. Experts who speak bad of Max are very wrong.” 1/3
— Andrew Zadarnowski (@AZadarski) August 4, 2018
But if it wasn’t Radulov, then what changed? The answer may be more clear by looking at Pacioretty’s output in the last three seasons. But to add further context, I’m going to add one more season where he set a career high in overall points.
- 2014-15: 37 goals and 30 assists / 302 shots – 12.3 S% / 537 shot attempts
- 2015-16: 30 goals and 34 assists / 303 shots – 9.9 S% / 539 shot attempts
- 2016-17: 35 goals and 32 assists / 268 shots – 13.1 S% / 500 shot attempts
- 2017-18: 17 goals and 20 assists / 212 shots – 8.0 S% / 391 shot attempts
It’s important to note that Pacioretty played the fewest amount of games of the four years this season because of a lower-body injury. If you were to take his shot and shot attempt totals and pro-rate them over an entire 82-game season, Pacioretty would’ve had around 272 shots and 500 shot attempts.
Must Read. First Goals With the Habs. light
Breaking down his scoring at each strength, it was his 5v5 production that took the biggest hit:
- 2014-15: 22 goals and 20 assists / 225 shots – 9.78 S% / 402 shot attempts
- 2015-16: 17 goals and 21 assists / 225 shots – 7.56 S% / 389 shot attempts
- 2016-17: 22 goals and 20 assists / 197 shots – 11.17 S% / 360 shot attempts
- 2017-18: 6 goals and 9 assists / 127 shots – 4.72 S% / 234 shot attempts
It’s easy to look at the two seasons and say, “AHAH! SEE!? RADULOV EFFECT!” Especially in the fact that the Habs captain’s S% was higher than any of the four years played.
Pacioretty played the most minutes at 5v5 with Radulov and Phillip Danault that seasons. He had Radulov assist on 8 of his 22 goals (6 primary) and 3 of his 8 power play goals (2 primary). There’s a clear partnership going on for that season, but it goes back to Radulov’s point in that Pacioretty scored 30 goals before he got there.
Change in Style
In the 2015-16 season, Gallagher and Markov had a total of 9 primary assists split between them on Pacioretty’s 5v5 scoring. Going back another year, Dale Weise was a big asset to Pacioretty. He had 7 primary assists on the sniper’s tallies that season! If my memory serves correctly, I don’t remember anyone screaming for Weise to return to the Habs lineup after he was traded to Chicago.
More from A Winning Habit
- Montreal Canadiens: Biggest Questions Going Into 2023-24
- Montreal Canadiens: Quentin Miller’s Poise And Confidence Fuel His Game
- Montreal Canadiens: Laval Rocket Top Defence Pair Could Be Set
- Montreal Canadiens: Worst Move Of The Pierre Gauthier Era
- Montreal Canadiens: Could Casey DeSmith End Up In Colorado?
Radulov had an obvious impact on the entire dynamic of the Montreal Canadiens, but he alone wasn’t the sole reason for Pacioretty falling to 17 goals. In fact, it’s the stylistic choices I mentioned earlier that probably did it.
Via IcyData.hockey, we can see a clear difference in where Pacioretty was taking his shots. It was pretty consistent between 2015 and 2016. Pacioretty had the bulk of his shots come in that mid-slot region, but a decent number of them were along the wall as well. The same thing occurred in the Radulov season. Pacioretty went to the net more for his shots in 2017 seeing the amount taken from the wing decrease.
However, the 2014-15 season saw him have a higher percentage of shots in front of the net as well, and that was the year he scored 37. It looks to be a combination of things that led to Pacioretty’s down year. What will be interesting to see is whether he reverts back to shooting more from the wall or continues to head to the front of the net to generate shots.
The “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” line fits well in this discussion. Radulov was a big addition to the Montreal Canadiens that year, and perhaps the new faces on the team in Max Domi have a similar impact. But if Pacioretty returns to form, it won’t be because of them specifically (depending on what the numbers say).
Next. Trade Pacioretty at the Deadline. dark
Trying duplicate Radulov’s style didn’t work, and if Pacioretty wants to return to his scoring ways, playing his own style is what’s going to do it.
Acknowledgements: Player stats from Natural Stat Trick. Shot locations from IcyData.Hockey.