Montreal Canadiens Season Preview: Jordan Weal

The Montreal Canadiens season is right around the corner, but before it gets here we are previewing what role every Habs player is going to fill. Today, we take a deeper look at Jordan Weal.

The Montreal Canadiens made a great trade a year ago when they acquired Max Domi from the Arizona Coyotes for Alex Galchenyuk. They went back to the well before the trade deadline and scooped up Jordan Weal from the Coyotes for struggling fourth line centre Michael Chaput.

The 27 year old forward dominated offensively at every level leading up to the NHL, but was struggling to find the back of the net with the Coyotes. He was originally a third round pick of the Los Angeles Kings in 2010, following his second of four fantastic seasons with the Regina Pats of the Western Hockey League. He scored 385 points in 282 career WHL games.

Weal had a decent first season with the Manchester Monarchs of the AHL, scoring 33 points in 63 games. After that, he played parts of three more seasons in the AHL and scored 186 points in 192 games. Still, he had a hard time finding offence at a consistent rate in the NHL.

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He was held scoreless in his first 14 NHL games in different stints with the Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers. In 2016-17, he had 12 points in 23 games with the Flyers and followed that up with 21 points in 69 games.

Last season, Weal was given a huge opportunity with the Flyers, and played a lot of minutes with offensive wingers like James van Riemsdyk and Wayne Simmonds. However, he had just nine points in 28 games before the Flyers flipped him to the Coyotes. After just one goal and one assist in 19 games with the Coyotes, they pulled the trigger on the trade that sent him to Montreal.

Weal played just 16 games with the Canadiens but had ten points. This includes a burst of offence to end the year that saw him score eight points in the team’s last ten games. He even breathed some life into what was one of the worst power plays in the league before he arrived.

Now, ten solid games by a 27 year old do not make up for the first 153 games where his offensive impact was minimal. However, not only did Weal score points in the last ten games, he absolutely dominated the opposition while on the ice in a Habs sweater.

In his 214 minutes on the ice at full strength, the Canadiens had 143 shots on goal while Weal was on the ice an allowed only 82. That is 63.56% of the shots while Weal is on the ice. This was no fluke either as the team’s Corsi-For percentage was 57.24% with Weal playing. Somehow, they only scored eight goals and allowed nine in that time.

This should tell us that not only did Weal bring some impressive production from the bottom of the lineup, but if he played more, his line would start to outscore the opposition at a wide margin. Weal’s work with the Habs is even more impressive when you consider his most frequent linemates were Nate Thompson and Paul Byron. Byron is a solid offensive player, but Thompson does not provide tons of scoring.

Weal earned a promotion to a scoring line between Joel Armia and Jonathan Drouin in the last handful of games of the season. It begs the question, what will his role be next season?

If Weal can continue to dominate the possession game like he did last season, we could see him jump into the top nine. However, I think we will see him start the year as the fourth line right winger. He will likely start the year with Ryan Poehling as his centre and either Nick Cousins or Charles Hudon on the left side.

That has the potential to be a really good, productive fourth line. Weal will also have a chance to reprise his role on the team’s power play, though there will be plenty of competition for right shooters on the man advantage. If Nick Suzuki makes the team, he would likely knock Weal off the PP.

Weal’s possession game, experience and strong start to his Habs career almost ensure him a regular spot in the lineup. However, his overall body of work in the NHL makes him a long shot to be a top six, or even top nine player next season.

There is nothing wrong with having a strong fourth line, and re-signing Jordan Weal to a two-year extension at $1.4 million per season ensures the Montreal Canadiens have a versatile, offensive option on that line for the foreseeable future.