Montreal Canadiens: 2020-21 Report Card Grades For Every Player

A. Jesse Ylonen surpassed all expectations in his first season in North America. He was the most exciting regular on the Laval Rocket, more so than Ryan Poehling (who had a fantastic year), Raphael Harvey-Pinard (equally good year) and powerplay superstar Jordan Weal. Jesse Ylonen has a whole bunch of flair, blazing speed and a wicked shot, assets that earned him 9 goals and 17 points in 29 AHL games; he’s really fun to watch. Give him another year or two in Laval and the Habs just might have themselves a valuable top-9 scorer. He only played in the Habs’ final game of the regular season, as a reward for his solid AHL play, and didn’t impact the game particularly much, but the young Finn’s future looks significantly brighter now than it did a year ago.. . . JESSE YLONEN

. COLE CAUFIELD. A. “[Cole Caufield is] going to be a tremendous player in this league for a long time. He’s going to score a lot of goals.” Corey Perry said this in the team’s end-of-season press conference and it’s a sentiment most Habs fans can’t help but echo, this team has not has an offensive player with the ceiling of Cole Caufield, at least in terms of goalscoring, in decades. The expectations were astronomical when he signed his ELC, they rose even higher when he scored 3 goals and 4 points in 2 AHL games. Then, after a long time on the taxi squad, Cole Caufield was inserted into the NHL lineup and scored 4 goals and 5 points in 10 regular-season games, his first two goals were overtime winners. After being left in the press box for the playoffs’ first two games, he showed the world that his ability not only translated to the NHL but that it shone at the very highest level of hockey in the world: the final two rounds of the Stanley Cup playoffs, where he scored 4 goals and 8 points in 11 games, right after picking up the series-clinching OT primary assist vs the Jets. Caufield was touted as a goalscorer, but his playmaking ability shone just as bright in the playoffs. On top of offensive ability, Caufield was fifth among Habs forwards with at least 100 5v5 minutes played in the playoffs in CF% with 49.42, third in GF% with 45 and third in xGF% with 52.73. Caufield also notched a point on every 5v5 goal the Habs scored with him on the ice, something no other regular player did in for the Habs in the postseason and that only four other players with at least 150 playoff minutes accomplished: Josh Morrissey, Blake Wheeler, Blake Coleman and Martin Necas, pretty good company for a player not even playing his rookie season yet. He not only hung with the team’s established offensive players, but he outshone most of them. His 12 points were third in Habs playoff scoring and averaged 17:23 minutes played. Despite the team not getting him the puck all that much on the powerplay in the playoffs, he led the team with 1.47 individual expected goals on the powerplay, he scored twice which was tied for the team lead. This kid isn’t going to be good, he already is; he’s going to be great, he’s not even of legal US drinking age yet..

B +. After the Jets series, I heard some members of the national media tout Armia as a breakout player in the playoffs, something I haven’t heard since. This is because of something all Habs fans have come to realize, Joel Armia is invisible in 85% of games and a dominant force in the other 15%; that 15% showed itself early in the playoffs rather than later. Armia is a player I’d love for the Habs to keep at a reasonable cost, he’s great on the PK, responsible defensively and one of the league’s very best puck protectors; he even has a wicked wrister he doesn’t use with any regularity. Armia’s advanced stats were also above average in the postseason, figuring between 4th and 8th among team forward with over 100 5v5 minutes, and they were even better in the regular season: 2nd best GF% with 60.98 and 5th best xGF% with 52.73%. Armia is a solid player whose play is a lot more consistent defensively than it is offensively.. . . JOEL ARMIA

Corey Perry was expected to be a good 13th forward who got into a few playoff games. He started the season on the taxi squad, but once he was inserted into the lineup following Joel Armia’s nasty concussion from a predatory Tyler Myers hit, he made it clear that he can still thrive in the NHL. He was ninth on the team in regular-season points with 21, and seventh in goals with 9. In the playoffs, he naturally stepped up his play; his three goals were tied for eighth and his 10 points were fourth on the team behind notable offensive pieces Nick Suzuki, Tyler Toffoli and Cole Caufield. Perry’s advanced stats don’t shine quite as bright as his production, though they’re by no means terrible, but as a fourth-line scorer, his production matches that of good third liners so his play has defied all expectations. He has also been a phenomenal mentor to young offensive players in Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi and Cole Caufield especially. Perry has already voiced his desire to re-sign with his childhood team next season; hopefully, Bergevin is smart enough to work out a cheap deal.. . . COREY PERRY. A +

B +. Gallagher had a good season; he scored 14 goals in 35 games in the regular season (33-goal pace) and added 9 assists. In the playoffs, he was not only assigned the most shutdown role imaginable alongside Phillip Danault but was so clearly injured. While the medical press conference only revealed that Gallagher was suffering from a groin injury, his wrist was quite blatantly injured, when he did use his shot in the postseason, it lacked its usual power and accuracy, one of his muffins went in in Game 7 vs Toronto and he scored his only other goal on a rebound against the Jets. Despite the injuries hampering his offensive production (6 points in 22 playoff games, on par with Joel Edmundson) Gallagher played a crucial role in shutting down opposing offensive weapons. Phillip Danault is receiving nearly all the credit for shutting down Matthews, Marner, Wheeler, Connor, Pacioretty, Stone, Kucherov and Point at 5v5 but Gallagher’s impact should not be overlooked; without him, the Habs lose to the Leafs. Gallagher was also by far the Habs’ best forward from an advanced stat perspective in the regular season and playoffs alike. Habs fans shouldn’t worry much about his 6-year contract worth $6.5 annually kicking in next season, he should be well worth that amount for the first four seasons if he fully heals up this summer; the last two years may or may not be worthwhile, but after everything Gallagher has done for this team, that isn’t important.. . . BRENDAN GALLAGHER

JOSH ANDERSON. A -. As you have likely noticed, I am quite a big believer in the use of advanced stats to determine a player’s contributions to their team. It should be noted, though, that these statistics are far more revealing when contextualized by actually watching the player play; the eye test is far from obsolete, though it can be just as misleading as advanced stats when it isn’t given context. Josh Anderson is a player advanced stats don’t like very much. He was bottom-five among Habs forwards with at least 100 5v5 playoff minutes in CF% and xGF%, though he somehow came second in GF%. In the regular season, he is also in the bottom half of forwards in most metrics. More in-depth models don’t love him because he has virtually no playmaking ability and is not very adaptable, he either drives the net or he drives the net. Despite this, Anderson was second on the team in goals in the regular season with 17 (27-goal pace) and was tied for second in playoff goals with 5, two of which were crucial OT winners. Anderson brings physicality and speed to the lineup along with his goalscoring ability. Some of the people harping on Anderson’s playmaking are the same ones that were complaining about the lack of goalscorers on the team a few years ago and that everyone was “just a playmaker”. Anderson is far from a perfect player but he is built for the playoffs, is a hell of a lot of fun to watch and he brings a dimension to the game that no other Hab does. You need diversity in the lineup in terms of playing styles and Anderson does just that; his contract doesn’t worry me one bit, and if his play takes a nosedive in his thirties (I doubt it will), his contract is built to be bought out as soon as 2024.. .