Montreal Canadiens: 5 Bold Habs Predictions For 2021-22 Season
Cole Caufield scores 40 goals
Cole Caufield barely got his feet wet at the NHL level before he was put on the first line as the Habs were trailing a series against the heavily favoured and bitter rival, Toronto Maple Leafs.
While he bobbled the puck a few times early on and maybe took a little while to get used to the pace of the NHL game, Caufield quickly adjusted. He was the best player in college hockey last season, scoring 30 goals and 52 points in 31 NCAA games.
Caufield did play ten regular season games for the Canadiens, scoring four goals and five points. He then finished third on the team in postseason scoring with 12 points in 20 games. Those are all high stakes shifts and he certainly passed the test. His terrific offensive skills were on display every night in the playoffs, just imagine what he can do on a Tuesday night in December against the Detroit Red Wings.
Caufield is probably the favourite to win the Calder Trophy, but we are going to take it a step further and predict he is among the top goal scorers in the whole league by firing 40 pucks into the net in his first full NHL season.
Jake Evans outplays Phillip Danault
Phillip Danault became a steady rock down the middle of the ice for the Canadiens over the past few seasons. You knew he was going to get tough assignments and that he was going to shut the other team’s best player.
He was in between Tomas Tatar and Brendan Gallagher for most of the past three seasons and they were perhaps the best defensive line in hockey while being the Canadiens best offensive line at the same time.
Danault signed a six year contract with the Los Angeles Kings, and though his skates will be tough to fill, I think Jake Evans is going to quickly make us forget about Danault.
Evans is not likely to be as good defensively as Danault this season, but he will be close. Close enough that his improved offence will make him a more complete player than Danault has been in recent seasons.
While Danault was great defensively, he didn’t bring a lot of scoring. He had just one goal in the postseason and has a career high of 13. He didn’t score in the first half of the regular season in 2020-21.
I predict that Evans will blow by Danault’s career high of 13 goals and approach 20 while playing on a line with Joel Armia and Brendan Gallagher. They will also combine to form a terrific shutdown duo, and with Evans earning a fraction of Danault’s new contract, us Habs fans won’t miss Danault at all this season.
Jonathan Drouin scores 82 points
Jonathan Drouin has had a difficult time winning over the fans of the Montreal Canadiens. He was brought in from the Tampa Bay Lightning in a trade that sent Mikhail Sergachev the other way. While Sergachev has barely solidified himself as a top four defender yet, he has been heralded as a Norris trophy hoarder by Habs fans who didn’t like the trade.
Meanwhile, Drouin has not quite lived up to the lofty heights that were expected when he arrived. It didn’t help that he was moved to centre to begin his first season, while he should be playing left wing. He hasn’t scored more than 53 points in a season, but there are reasons to believe the 26 year old is about to have a career year.
His past two seasons, he has gotten off to great starts, but couldn’t keep up that production after the first two months. After taking a leave of absence at the end of last season, it was announced Drouin dealt with insomnia and anxiety.
It makes sense that he ran out of gas if he wasn’t sleeping at all. With that taken care of, it should be time for Drouin to have his best year yet.
Also, the playmaking winger now has a goal scoring centre to play with. Christian Dvorak scored at a 25 goal pace with Tyler Pitlick and Lawson Crouse on his wings last season. Pairing him with Drouin could unleash both of their potentials and have them each reaching career highs this season.
If Drouin can continue the pace he starts every year with, he will score at a point per game pace.
Habs start the postseason with home ice
The Canadiens are in a very tough division. The Atlantic features the Tampa Bay Lightning, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins and Florida Panthers, as well as the Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings and Buffalo Sabres. Most pundits would put the Habs right in the middle of that group, which isn’t a great place to be.
Finishing fourth or fifth in this division means battling a couple of tough Metropolitan Division teams for wildcard spots. Fortunately, the Canadiens won’t have to worry about that as they are going to start the playoffs with home ice advantage.
How? Well, a couple of the powerhouse teams from this division are about to take a step back.
The Bruins lost David Krejci and really didn’t replace him. They re-signed Taylor Hall to play left wing on the second line, but don’t really have a second centre behind Patrice Bergeron. Also, Bergeron is 36 years old so maybe he slows down just a tiny bit in the last year of his contract? Probably not.
Even if Bergeron is as terrific as ever, the Bruins are going with the goaltending tandem of Linus Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman which is far less experienced that the Tuukka Rase-Jaroslav Halak duo they’ve had for years.
Derek Forbort and Mike Reilly are going to play big roles on the blue line as well since the team never really replaced Zdeno Chara and Torey Krug. There are a lot of questions marks on the Bruins for the first time in years.
The Lightning still have tons of talent, but their depth have completely been eroded with the departure of Yanni Gourde, Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow. They are one injury away from having Mathieu Joseph in the top six after he was a healthy scratch for most of the playoffs.
Tampa Bay and Boston are still good, but so are the Canadiens and they are going to leapfrog both of them to take one of the top two seeds in the Atlantic Division this season.
Canadiens return to Stanley Cup Final
The Montreal Canadiens were built for the postseason and they proved that over the past two years. A big upset over the Pittsburgh Penguins in the bubble in 2020 was proven not to be a fluke when the Canadiens brushed aside the Maple Leafs, Winnipeg Jets and Vegas Golden Knights in 2021.
Once they get in, they are tough to beat. With Carey Price in goal and a bevy of brutish blue liners in front of him, teams get worn out quickly in a series with the Canadiens. Battling with Joel Edmundson and Ben Chiarot will do that to a player.
Also, the Canadiens may not have any superstars up front, although Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield could be about to change that, but they do have a lot of depth. When Mike Hoffman gets healthy, he could be on a fourth line with Adam Brooks and Mathieu Perreault, which is a pretty potent offensive fourth line.
Once Price gets healthy, having a backup like Jake Allen will allow him to stay rested throughout the season and ready for the postseason. That’s a dangerous thought for other teams and the biggest reason why the Canadiens are about to embark on another run to the Stanley Cup Final this season.
Next. Suzuki contract is great news for Habs. dark