Montreal Canadiens: 3 Biggest Reasons Habs are Stanley Cup Contenders

Depth everywhere

The Canadiens young players like Suzuki, Kotkaniemi and Romanov stepping up to take on big roles, combined with newcomers like Toffoli, Anderson, Edmundson and Allen playing so well gives the Canadiens one thing that no other team in the Canadian Division can claim: tremendous depth at every position.

Up front, the Habs relied heavily on the Danault, Tatar and Gallagher line for everything in the past two seasons. They had to shut down the opposition’s best players but also lead the Habs offensively. Now, they might be the Canadiens third best forward line.

The line of Anderson, Suzuki and Drouin has combined for 32 points in 12 games this season and the “third line” of Kotkaniemi, Toffoli and Armia (now Perry) has combined for 28. Meanwhile, the Habs former best line of Danault, Tatar and Gallagher has 19 points.

That trio is still excellent defensively, but the depth means they don’t have to be terrific offensively to win games. It also means they don’t have to play against the other team’s best line on every single shift as head coach Claude Julien has the luxury of just rolling all four lines throughout games.

The Habs fourth line of Artturi Lehkonen, Paul Byron and Jake Evans are all averaging at least 12:34 per game of ice time.

No other team can trust their bottom six forwards as much as the Canadiens. Toffoli is a third line winger on the Habs and he is second in the league in goals. Lehkonen has played every game on the fourth line and he averages 13:26 per night.

Meanwhile, the Toronto Maple Leafs, who are battling the Habs for first place, are trying to make Jimmy Vesey work as a top six winger because they really only have five forwards they can trust every night.

Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and William Nylander are amazing players, but their huge salaries make it difficult to add depth at every position like the Canadiens own.

In a season with a condensed scheduled, that could become even tighter if there are cancellations, depth is more important than ever. Suzuki leads the Habs forwards in ice time with 18:19 per game, while Mitch Marner is a few seconds short of 23 minutes per night.

Who is going to run out of gas first when both teams play 16 games in 30 days in April? Fairly certain it will be the team that relies on a handful of forwards, and not the one that relies on a handful of forward lines.