The Montreal Canadiens were depending on Max Domi to bring offence this season. He did for a while. Then he didn’t. Lately, he has been scoring regularly once again.
The Montreal Canadiens made a risky trade when they sent Alex Galchenyuk to the Arizona Coyotes for Max Domi. It was a classic Marc Bergevin “one-for-one” deal but this one seemed like it was going to be a loss for the Habs general manager.
Much like many of his most controversial trades, given a little time, it looks much better than it did when we first heard about the deal. The day of the trade, Domi was a 23 year old winger who scored just nine goals the previous season. He set the bar higher with 18 goals in his rookie season, but had just nine in each of the next two years.
Meanwhile, Galchenyuk was a 24 year old forward who had 19 goals and 51 points the previous season. He had a 30 goal campaign under his belt and many fans of the Canadiens still believed Galchenyuk had all the tools to be a 30 goal scoring first line centre for this franchise. To move him for a nine goal scorer who worked hard seemed odd.
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Then Domi showed up in Montreal and had a terrific offensive season. He scored 28 goals and 72 points in his first year with the Habs and transitioned to the center ice position to do it. Galchenyuk scored 19 goals and 41 points in 72 games that season with the Coyotes.
This season has been up and down for Domi. He started the year well offensively, scoring ten points in his first ten games. Then he had just three points in the next 12 games. He followed that up with a run of 22 games where he scored 20 points. He then went dry again, scoring just one goal and three points in his next 16 games.
Lately, Domi is heating up once again. Not only is he finding the scoresheet but he is competing harder than he seemed to be recently and is being rewarded offensively. He scored once again last night against the Carolina Hurricanes which was his eighth point in his last seven games.
When Domi was acquired, it was thought he would be a second or third line winger who could contribute some offence while providing some grit and physical play. He was basically supposed to be another Andrew Shaw. Then he exploded offensively last year and scored 72 points as a center.
This greatly increased his expectations for this season. Suddenly, Domi was expected to score nearly a point per game while playing center and providing a nasty, physical style every night. Well, he has done that about half the time. His first ten games were great, there was a stretch of 22 games in the middle of the year and his last seven have been fantastic.
The problem is, there were two fairly long stretches of poor play splitting up those hot streaks. Still, Domi finds himself third on the team in points right now with 44 in 67 games. Those aren’t bad numbers and have him on pace for 20 goals and 53 points. If he did this last year, we probably would have thought it was great. But since he set career highs in all offensive categories last year, dropping back to 20 goals and 53 points is a disappointment.
It will make for interesting contract negotiations this summer. Domi is slated to be a restricted free agent and set himself up for a huge payday when he scored 72 points. Now, that season starts to look like a mirage and 20 goals and 55 points appears to be the norm for Domi.
It will be difficult for the team and player to agree on a number. Domi can be an unrestricted free agent in two years so giving him another bridge contract seems unlikely. Going long term and paying him like a 70 point player is too risky for the team, while taking a long term contract befitting a 50 point player is not going to appease Domi.
One thing is for sure, with Galchenyuk on his third team since he left Montreal and having scored six goals and 21 points in 54 games this season, the Habs certainly won the trade. Winning the contract negotiations will be a lot more difficult for Bergevin.