Montreal Canadiens: An Ode to Phillip Danault

Earlier in the offseason, the Montreal Canadiens lost star defensive centre Phillip Danault in free agency to the L.A. Kings, who offered him a king’s ransom of $5.5 million for 6 years, with a full no-movement clause in the first three years, and a modified no movement for the last three. It was hate to see you go, but love to see you leave on that contract.

It was similar to what was rumoured Marc Bergevin offered Danault last offseason, just $500,000 more but there was no mention of no-movement clauses. It is hard to feel that the Canadiens and Bergevin dodged a bullet, especially with players like Suzuki, Caufield and Romanov due big contracts in the future. $5.5 million is a lot of money for a guy that could be looking at playing on the second or third line, which is, ironically, the fate that faces Danault in L.A. with Anze Kopitar first-line centre, and Quinton Byfield looking to take big steps in the future.

That is the narrative that has been built up since the deal has been announced. And it is not wrong, but it is nice to not just think on the negative and remember the good times.

In 2011 Danault was taken in the first round, 26th overall by the Chicago Blackhawks, with a draft pick the Blackhawks acquired from the Washington Capitals for Troy Brouwer. That year, Montreal picked Nathan Beaulieu in the first round, 17th overall, just one spot behind current Canadien with a brand new contract, Joel Armia. Danault hadn’t had great numbers in the QMJHL before his draft year, 10 goals and 28 points in 61 games in 2009-10, and 23 goals and 67 points in 64 games. Not to mention in 2010 he finished the playoffs with 1 point in 15 games.

His AHL numbers on the Rockford IceHogs weren’t great either, but he garnered a look in the NHL due to his defensive skills. He managed just 32 games with Chicago split over two seasons, scoring one goal and 5 points. But Chicago was in the midst of their win-now mode, and a young, defensive centre that would take years to develop does not fit that bill.

That is when, during the trade deadline of 2016, the Canadiens made a trade to acquire assets for players in their prime as they were in the midst of crashing out of the playoffs as a devastating Carey Price injury totally derailed their season. the Canadiens traded away Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann for Danault and a second-round pick which would turn out to be Alexander Romanov.

It remains one of Bergevin’s best trades in his history as General Manager. Dale Weise was a perfect example of selling high, as he was in the midst of his best year offensively with 14 goals, and Tomas Fleischmann was a journeyman centre who was, once again, having his best year offensively in 4 years but didn’t fit the team’s new identity of becoming younger.

Fleischmann played just 14 more regular-season games with Chicago and the NHL in general, notching 4 goals, and 4 playoff games registering no points. Weise played 15 games in Chicago with just 1 assist, before leaving in free agency to Philadelphia, where he would never enjoy the career highs he had in Montreal, and eventually rejoined the Habs in 2019.

So that is 30 regular-season games and 8 playoff games for 414 regular-season games (and counting) and 42 playoff games (and counting). Even with Montreal letting Danault walk in free agency and getting nothing in return, the deal is still a home run for Marc Bergevin.

Over his six years in Montreal, Danault has steadily grown into the best defensive centre in the league. In reality, Danault should have won the Selke Award for the best defensive forward, but unfortunately, he doesn’t put up good enough offensive numbers to be considered. Figure that one out. The Selke award is less the best defensive forward, but the best defensive forward that also puts up great offensive numbers.

Along with long-time Canadien, sparkplug, and future captain Brendan Gallagher and misfit among the misfits Tomas Tatar, the trio formed one of the most dominant possession lines in all of hockey. It was Montreal’s top line, that saw the toughest match-ups, and still put up dominant numbers. Gallagher put up his best goal-scoring year on Danault’s wing with 33 goals. In his first two years in Montreal, Tatar scored the most points in his career with 58 points in 2018-19 and 61 points in 2019-20.

Danault has scored 13 goals twice, in 2016-17 and 2019-20, but his best year for points was 2018-19, where he broke the 50 point plateau with 12 goals and 41 assists. These aren’t dominant offensive numbers, and it is hard to see Danault breaking 20 goals in a season, but the way he plays defensively more than makes up for his relative lack of offence.

The only time Danault was a net negative in + – in a year was his first in Montreal, where he finished with -2 in 21 games at the age of 22 as a rookie. He has always been a great faceoff taker in Montreal, never finishing a year under 50%.

And let’s be clear, what Danault did this playoffs was special and it is hard to see many other players doing what he did. The 2021 Rocket Richard winner Auston Matthews, who scored 41 goals in 52 games, was held to 1 goal in Game 2, which was the one where the game got away from Montreal with all of the penalties. Top 5 point scorer Mitch Marner was held goalless and had only 4 assists in 7 games.

Former Canadiens captain Max Pacioretty, who came into the Montreal series having scored 4 goals in his last 7 games, scored just 1 goal in the 6 game series against Danault. Vegas captain Mark Stone finished with absolutely no points in the series. And if you want to see how much Danault’s impact was, just look at the Tampa series. Jon Cooper did a fantastic job of matching his lines and getting his third line against the Danault line, and his first line against Montreal’s young Nick Suzuki line.

Danault scored one of the Canadiens’ best goals in the Final, where he sniped a goal bar down on Andrei Vasilevskiy. It was unfortunately his only goal in the playoffs, and that was ultimately his downfall, and what made him expendable. It is like a forward that scores goals but plays absolutely no defence. There is a place for those players in the game, but a $5.5 million place?

So Phillip Danault was Montreal’s top centre for years, and formed one of the most dominant lines in hockey. While his departure isn’t back-breaking, he leaves a big hole for Montreal to fill in that second-line centre role, one that Bergevin has so far not addressed this offseason. Montreal’s first tilt against L.A. comes early in the season, October 30th, and I for one cannot wait to see how that goes. Danault’s future is one to watch, as he competes with two-time Selke winner Anze Kopitar and young up-and-comer Quinton Byfield. I wish him all the best and thanks for all the memories.