Montreal Canadiens: Successful 2021-22 Season Hinges on Ryan Poehling

The Montreal Canadiens once again had a busy offseason. A year ago, they brought in Tyler Toffoli, Jake Allen, Joel Edmundson, Josh Anderson, and Corey Perry.

This year, the Canadiens added David Savard, Mike Hoffman, Mathieu Perreault and Cedric Paquette.

While they have upgraded, or at least patched holes on the wing, in goal and on defence over the past two offseasons, the only centre brought in was Paquette.

This offseason, we also saw longtime Habs middle man Phillip Danault sign a lucrative contract with the Los Angeles Kings. With new additions everywhere but centre, that leaves a massive hole in the middle of the Canadiens lineup heading into next season. Danault regularly played with Brendan Gallagher and Tomas Tatar over the past three seasons on an extremely reliable trio that provided plenty of offence.

So, how do the Canadiens replace Danault?

It looks like there is a huge lane opening up for Ryan Poehling.

Nick Suzuki has taken huge steps in the past two seasons and will surely be the team’s first line centre. After that, there are many question marks about how the depth chart will fill out.

It is a safe assumption that Jesperi Kotkaniemi will draw in as the team’s second line centre, but he started and finished the 2021 postseason as a healthy scratch. Can the 21 year old Finn be counted on to play second line minutes every night?

Jake Evans looked fine defensively throughout the season but was moved to the press box as well at times. When Eric Staal arrived from the Buffalo Sabres, it was Evans who lost his regular spot in the lineup as the team’s fourth line centre. Evans had three goals and 13 points in 47 regular season games, so can he play above the fourth line?

Paquette was brought in on a one-year contract but he had just eight points in 47 games last season. The 28 year old can play fourth line, but there is no reason to believe he should be playing any higher than that.

A Suzuki-Kotkaniemi-Evans-Paquette quartet down the middle leaves a lot of question marks and absolutely no room for error.

Which is where Ryan Poehling steps in. It doesn’t make sense for the Canadiens to let Danault walk away and not replace his presence in the lineup. Paquette can shoulder the load that Staal carried while a member of the Canadiens, but how do you replace Danault?

Well, a big, two-way centre who was a first round pick just a couple years ago isn’t a bad start. Poehling was the 25th overall selection in the 2017 NHL Draft, and the 22 year old looks ready to take a big step forward in his career this season.

The 6’2″ and 185 pound centre played two seasons of college hockey after being drafted by the Habs. He scored 31 points in 36 games each of those seasons and really took his game to an impressive level at the World Juniors where he was named tournament MVP while helping the United States win a silver medal.

Last season, Poehling broke out with the Laval Rocket. He was bouncing back and forth between the AHL and NHL in 2019-20 and playing a fourth line left wing role with the Canadiens that doesn’t really suit his game. He struggled that season but dominated last year for the Rocket.

Though his offence started slowly with just four points in his first ten games, Poehling was terrific defensively and proved ready to take on a larger role at the AHL level. Then, he took off offensively as well without sacrificing any of his great defensive game. Poehling scored 21 points in his last 18 games, before missing the team’s final seven games with injury.

When the NHL offseason began, the Canadiens acted quickly to replace Tomas Tatar by signing Mike Hoffman. They filled Shea Weber’s absence on the blue line by signing David Savard. Corey Perry left and Mathieu Perreault came. Staal wasn’t brought back but Paquette took over that role.

Phillip Danault left and no one was brought in to replace him. That’s because the management team liked what they saw from Ryan Poehling with the Laval Rocket and are ready to hand him a key role on the Canadiens next season.