Montreal Canadiens: Five Best American Players To Suit Up For Habs

5. Brian Gionta

Brian Gionta signed with the Habs on July 1, 2009 in the offseason that saw more turnover than any other in franchise history. While former leaders and top scorers like Saku Koivu, Alex Kovalev, Alex Tanguay, Robert Lang, and Mike Komisarek all walked away from Montreal via free agency, Gionta was the guy tasked with picking up the pieces.

He wasn’t named captain until a year later, but Gionta was a huge part of the new leadership core that was brought in after a failed attempt at building a winner for the Canadiens centennial season.

While the team struggled in what was supposed to be a magical 2009 playoffs, Gionta was a huge part of them making a surprising run in the 2010 postseason. Jaroslav Halak and Mike Cammalleri get most of the praise for the Habs taking out the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins that spring, they couldn’t have done it without Gionta’s contribution.

The native of Rochester, New York scored 28 goals and 46 points in 61 games during his first season in Montreal. In 19 playoff games that year, he scored nine goals and 15 points. Both of those numbers put him second on the team behind Cammalleri, and pretty far ahead of anyone else on the roster.

Gionta signed a five-year contract when he joined the Habs and earned every penny of his $5 million annual salary. He would score 97 goals and 173 points in 303 career games with the Canadiens. He took on a leadership role that was left void from Saku Koivu departing and shouldered a heavy burden while helping the team on a lengthy playoff run in 2010.