Montreal Canadiens Roundtable: Which New Player Has Biggest Impact? Who Leads Habs in Points?

Joseph Gentile: The most impactful player for the team this season I think will be Jake Allen. He went 12-6-3 with the Blues last season as a backup, posting a high save percentage (.927) and a low goals against average (2.15) Despite the lower workload, you need to remember that he finished with winning records in all his previous seasons as a starter. Allen has been a perennial starter in this league despite the drop off, mainly due to losing his job to cup champion Binnington.

From a strictly numbers standpoint, the Canadiens backup situation last year was horrendous (Kinkaid, Lindgren, Primeau). Combined they went 4-6-3, the team lost 15 points on nights where Price did not play. That would have put us ahead of Toronto at 86 points and third in our division, likely giving us a legitimate playoff position. I am not saying that Allen would have won all those games (it would have probably been impossible), however you must think he could have won 7-8 of those games given last season’s pace.

Allen likely already has eight starts lined up for him given the team has eight back-to-backs this season. Julien might also look to giving Allen some starts against the lower seeded teams (we are playing the 30th place Senators 8 times this year). That is something we were not able to assume last season given the shaky backup situation, we needed Price to start almost every game to even give us a chance at winning.

Ken MacMillan: I think Joel Edmundson will play the most minutes, and Tyler Toffoli might have the most points but it will be Josh Anderson who has the biggest impact among the newcomers. Anderon’s impact won’t just be measured in goals and points, but it will be his ability to free up space for skilled, but much smaller, linemates Nick Suzuki and Jonathan Drouin. Don’t be surprised if Anderson has a solid season, but the two players on the ice with him look much better than they did last season.