Montreal Canadiens: Three Players Who Have Far Exceeded Expectations This Season

Artturi Lehkonen

While Artturi Lehkonen scored one of the biggest goals in recent Habs memory when he sniped the series winning goal in the third round of the 2021 Playoffs, he wasn’t known as a goal scorer with the Habs.

Lehkonen always played a terrific defensive game for the Canadiens. He would kill penalties, play tough matchups with ease, shut down the best opposing players, and make it look easy with his smarts and stick skills.

Unexpectedly, Lehkonen also took a step forward offensively this season. His awareness and defensive skills often allowed him to get scoring chances, but he would rarely be able to finish off those plays.

This season, he scored 13 goals and 29 points in 58 games in a Habs sweater. That had him on pace for 18 goals which would have tied a career high, and 41 points which would have been ten more than his best season to date.

Of course, Lehkonen was traded to the Colorado Avalanche at the trade deadline, but the return of Justin Barron and a second round pick was a lot more than originally expected because Lehkonen exceeded his own expectations so much this season.

Rem Pitlick

The Montreal Canadiens were busy claiming players off waivers this season to fill gaps in the roster.

Sam Montembeault was claimed off waivers and has played 33 games in goal this season. Kale Clague was picked up off waivers and has played a depth role on the blue line.

Rem Pitlick was also grabbed off the waiver wire and he has turned into an intriguing offensive piece for the Habs. The 25 year old couldn’t quite hang on to his roster spot with the Minnesota Wild, but has scored 22 points in 36 games for the Canadiens since joining the organization in January.

When a player is claimed off waivers, the expectations are set quite low. I mean, a team literally just gave up on the player and lost them for absolutely nothing in return.

Though the acquisition cost was nothing for the Canadiens, they have received a lot of value out of Rem Pitlick. Recently, he has been playing on the top line with Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. It remains to be seen if he sticks there long term, but he certainly earned the promotion by playing way better than anyone expected when he arrived.

Alexander Romanov

The best thing to come out of this lost season for the Canadiens is that a number of young players have taken huge steps forward.

Following last season’s playoff run, a lot was expected out of forwards Nick Suzuki and Cole Caufield. They were two of the top three scorers on the Habs in the postseason and were expected to play like first line forwards this season.

They didn’t at first, but sure are now. You could say they have exceeded expectations for the past two months, but over the course of the season they are really producing as expected, or maybe a little below.

The same can’t be said for defence man Alexander Romanov.

The 22 year old defender’s value can’t defined by the same numbers as Suzuki’s points or Caufield’s goals, but he has taken a huge step forward this season. Romanov was a healthy scratch in all but four of the Habs playoff games, being passed over for veterans Jon Merrill and Erik Gustafsson on a nightly basis.

The same thing wouldn’t happen again now.

To begin this season, Romanov only reached the 20 minute mark in two of the Canadiens first 17 games. Since St. Louis took over two months ago, Romanov has played under 20 minutes just four times and has never played less than 19 minutes in a game.

The Canadiens most recent contest was a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs and their high flying offence. Yet, there was Romanov taking plenty of shifts against Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner.

Romanov has improved at both ends of the ice seemingly every night this season. He has gone from healthy scratch in the playoffs to a legit top four defender and perhaps a guy who can soon be a trusted top pairing defenceman on a nightly basis.

His point totals aren’t an indicator of his strong play, but the fact he played 25 minutes against the Maple Leafs and Florida Panthers recently shows his coach trusts him against the top offences in the game.

That’s an enormous step forward from where he was at the beginning of the year.

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