Montreal Canadiens Need To Find Nick Suzuki New Linemates

The Montreal Canadiens liked what they saw out of Nick Suzuki during training camp. He has been pushed down the lineup to the fourth line, but it is time he gets a more prominent role.

The Montreal Canadiens were obviously very impressed with Nick Suzuki during training camp. They decided to start him off in a fairly prominent role with the Habs in game one of the regular season, but he has been pushed down the the fourth line lately. They are going to need to find some new linemates soon if they want to get the best out of him.

Suzuki was a key component in the Max Pacioretty tree just over a year ago. He was acquired, along with Tomas Tatar and a second round pick from the Vegas Golden Knights in exchange for the Canadiens captain and best goal scorer.

Tatar turned out to be a revelation for the Habs, scoring 25 goals and setting a career high with 59 points. The Canadiens flipped the second round pick at the 2019 NHL Draft which was 50th overall for the 64th and 126th picks in the same draft. They ended up taking Mattias Norlinder who is playing incredible hockey in the Swedish Hockey League and Jacob LeGuerrier who is playing a solid defensive game for the Sault Ste Marie Greyhounds.

The prize of the trade though, was Nick Suzuki. He was coming off consecutive seasons with at least 40 goals and 95 points for the Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League. Last season, after the Vegas-Montreal swap, Suzuki played even better, netting 94 points in 59 games and putting up an incredible 42 points in 24 playoff games, basically carrying the Guelph Storm to an OHL Championship on his back.

Suzuki has plenty of skill. His ability to stickhandle, skate, pass and especially his exceptional vision are what made him a first round pick in 2017. He brought all of those skills to the Canadiens training camp in September and earned himself a big role in the season opener.

Suzuki started that game against the Carolina Hurricanes on a line with Max Domi and Artturi Lehkonen. They were given the second most minutes behind the top trio of Phillip Danault, Tatar and Brendan Gallagher. The lines remained the same to start against the Toronto Maple Leafs in the second contest of the season, but they didn’t end that way.

With the team trailing by three in the third period, head coach Claude Julien jumbled his lines quite a bit. One result of that shakeup was dropping Suzuki to the fourth line with Nate Thompson and Jordan Weal. The Habs came all the way back to win that game in a shootout so you can’t fault Julien for any choices that night.

However, I think it is time Suzuki gets a promotion again. Since his demotion against the Leafs, Suzuki has primarily played with Thompson and either Weal or Nick Cousins. Thompson is a heavy, veteran presence that can win key faceoffs and kill penalties, and Cousins basically matches the same description. Neither of them are big point producers.

There was nothing wrong with Julien dropping Suzuki to the fourth line at the time he did. Suzuki was tentative with the puck, not confident at all and was just hesitating too much to be successful at the NHL level. He held on to the puck far too long deep in his own end against the Maple Leafs, was knocked off the puck and it directly led to a Leafs goal. It made sense to move him down the lineup at the time.

However, Suzuki has found a ton of confidence already and after 11 games played he looks like a far different player than the one who coughed up the puck behind his own net against the Leafs in game two. He is far more assertive on the forecheck, he is creating turnovers instead of being the cause of them, is clearly more comfortable making plays with the puck on his stick, is showing far more confidence moving the puck on the power play and flat out deserves a promotion.

The way the Canadiens have been rolling four lines this season, it’s not even that Suzuki needs far more ice time. Sure, he is on the fourth line but he is a regular on the man advantage and has played between 12:00 and 16:30 in his 11 games.

It is not like Suzuki has been parked on the bench for extended periods of time. Even on the fourth line, the least he has played in a given night is 12 minutes. The problem is, his excellent vision and creativity does not translate to a lot of points when Thompson, Weal and Cousins are his linemates.

In the past five games, Suzuki has found the back of the net three times. His first was against the Minnesota Wild when he scored from a wild angle on a backhander. He was then set up in the slot by a nice Thompson pass and fired a one-timer past Jake Allen against the St. Louis Blues and buried a one-timer off another Thompson feed against the Maple Leafs on a two-on-one last night.

Suzuki is the type of played that can take advantage of his chances, and he has been doing that for the past two weeks with Thompson on his line. The pair has linked up for a couple of goals so on the one hand it makes sense to leave them together and continue to hope for production from the fourth line. On the other hand, how many more of these chances would Suzuki be getting if Jesperi Kotkaniemi was his centre?

Though it is time to move Suzuki back up the lineup, the top six is clicking well as it is constructed right now. The Danault line has been a mainstay since Tatar landed in Montreal and won’t be broken up soon. Domi has been playing with Jonathan Drouin and Joel Armia lately and that trio has been playing great as well.

The third line however, is not producing much at all. Kotkaniemi is a skilled, playmaking centre, but he has just one goal and two assists in 11 games. Paul Byron has not scored a goal and has just two assists. Lehkonen plays a great defensive game, but has just one goal and four points this season.

What has the potential to get that third line going? Pairing Suzuki with Kotkaniemi and either Byron or Lehkonen to provide a defensive presence on the left side. They could be sheltered a bit as they wouldn’t have to face the toughest competition since the Danault line regularly takes care of that assignment.

Leaving the top six as it is, and combining Suzuki with Kotkaniemi would give the Canadiens three dangerous lines that can score at even strength. NHL teams are always hesitant to pair a 19 year old centre with a 20 year old rookie winger, but Kotkaniemi and Suzuki have the required hockey sense to not get dominated while they are on the ice.

There are risks, but the potential explosion of offence from partnering two players who are future cornerstones of this team is too tempting to pass up. A fourth line of Cousins, Thompson and Byron would be defensive-minded enough to play against anyone and would be capable of providing some offence as well.

Suzuki likely hasn’t been a fourth line player his entire life. He has been for most of his NHL Career thus far, but it is time to find him more creative linemates that can bring out his creative side.