Nick Suzuki’s Unforeseen Offensive Impact and Where it May Take Him

Nick Suzuki is already one of the Canadiens’ most intelligent players; he reads the game incredibly well. He is calm under pressure and has ice flowing through his veins. Moreover, he is defensively sound and has won 49% of his faceoffs this season (keep in mind this is with a small sample size of 102 faceoffs taken). These are all qualities that take most players a good number of years to acquire and yet, Nick Suzuki is flaunting them just 23 games into his young career.

In his last six games, Suzuki has tallied three goals and three assists while seeing time on both special teams units. His impact goes well being the scoresheet, however; he just makes things happen. Whenever the puck is on his stick in the offensive zone, it seems destined to head to a dangerous area. If he were on a line with a bonafide goal-scorer like a, I don’t know… Cole Caufield (wow the future looks bright), his assist totals would truly skyrocket given the quality of chances he creates.

Of course, being a rookie, mistakes are made, from which Suzuki will learn. The last two games have featured a Suzuki blunder that directly led to the game-winning goal. Against Ottawa, he got caught being far too passive in overtime, backchecking rather lazily, not expecting a scoring opportunity to come of the play. Against New York, whilst on the powerplay, he swung at an attempted clearance, which slowed the puck down, allowing for a two-on-one opportunity for the shorthanded Rangers, who tallied the game-winning goal.

Despite these two costly mistakes, the frustration of the Habs fanbase has been focused on most players not named Nick Suzuki because he has brought so much more to the team than he has cost it. Instead, fellow young centre, Jesperi Kotkaniemi has seen the majority of criticism because he seems lost on the ice and is failing to contribute offensively, two things that will certainly turn around for the 2018 third overall draft pick. But Suzuki is already providing these aspects of the game.

Suzuki has improved with each passing game this season and will continue to grow as a player for years to come. Given how good he already is, it is really exciting to imagine how much he will be contributing in a few years’ time. With Suzuki’s level of understanding of the game and exploiting the smallest of opportunities given to him on the ice, it does not seem to be outlandish to wonder if we are currently witnessing the makings of a #1 centre.

Suzuki’s rookie season has been truly exceptional thus far and let’s cross our fingers in hoping for this streak to continue. If it weren’t for the existence of two individuals names Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes, I may even say that Suzuki has a shot at the Calder, but alas, I shall content myself with fantasies of a Drouin-Suzuki-Caufield line a few years down the road.