1. Right-Wing Depth
Heading into the offseason, the team’s depth at right wing was a concern. In the bubble, the Habs only had three right-wingers on their roster: Brendan Gallagher, Joel Armia and Dale Weise. At the start of the 2021 season, the Canadiens clearly had one of the best groups of right-wingers in the league. Now, nearly halfway through this 56-game season, I feel relatively confident in saying that the Canadiens have the best right-wing depth in the league.
It should be noted that I am specifically speaking of the best right-wing depth rather than the most valuable right-wing corps in the league. Toronto has a one-two punch of Mitch Marner and William Nylander that easily trumps the Habs’ top-2 right-wingers on skill and game-breaking ability alone. Toronto does not, however, have Montreal’s depth at the position. Note that I am writing this piece prior to Saturday’s rematch against the Flames, so the statistics will invariably change a little bit, but the conclusions they draw should remain valid.
Tyler Toffoli has had a phenomenal start in the Tricolore, leading all right-wingers in the league with 15 goals on the season, and while he has almost exclusively been playing on the left-wing, he is a right-winger by trade. Josh Anderson and Brendan Gallagher each have 10 goals, tied for 12th in the league in goals among natural right-wingers. Joel Armia and Corey Perry have both notched 5 goals in 19 games, which ties them for 43rd in the league among natural right-wingers.
Of the 56 right-wingers in the league to have scored at least 5 goals this season, 5 are on the Habs; that’s pretty good! Unfortunately, the goalscoring prowess of the Canadiens’ right-wingers has not been replicated by the centremen or left-wingers.
At the time of writing, the Habs have scored 85 goals. 45 of those goals were scored by the 5 aforementioned right-wingers. The four centremen on the roster have combined for just 11 goals and the four left-wingers have equalled that tally. The right-wingers have more than doubled the goals scored by the centremen and left-wingers combined. There is of course the caveat of Tyler Toffoli playing on the left-wing all season, which singlehandedly skews this whole stat-line.
It should also be noted that the three natural scorers playing in the Habs’ top-9 are all right-wingers, while the centremen and left-wingers are playmakers first and foremost, so the goals will naturally come from the right-wing. Still, I find it interesting how reliant this team is on goals being scored by the right-wingers or Jeff Petry.
Considering how strong the team is in scoring from the right-wing, it will be interesting to keep an eye on the team’s top two forward prospects, who just so happen to be right-shot right-wingers, in Cole Caufield and Jesse Ylonen. Both could make the team in training camp next year and they are both known for their wicked shots and finishing ability. A little more on Caufield later…