Montreal Canadiens: Kirby Dach has a chance to be strong spot in offense

The Montreal Canadiens are steadily approaching the beginning of the 2022-23 season. While they continue to sort out some roster construction questions and finish out the preseason, looking for a win.

Looking ahead, the 2022-23 season is not likely to be the most exciting as the Montreal Canadiens rebuild and refuel, giving their younger talent a chance to settle in and develop. With a rebuilding team, consistent offense will be hard to come by.

Even with younger talent that is expected to get the job done, the Habs offense will likely sputter and struggle to produce at times. But there will be some bright spots and players who are able to find the back of the net, even during a rebuild.

Kirby Dach is poised for a breakout in his new home, but his “break out” may need to be taken with a grain of salt. It’s hard to have a breakout season on a team where the scoring will be down all around.

But if you had to pick a player who will still be able to perform, Dach seems like a good choice. I’d expect Dach to find his way on the scoresheet and be able to produce some offense, even on a rebuilding team.

Montreal Canadiens forward Kirby Dach will find ways to produce.

Dach needed a change of scenery. After taking care of a contract extension, he can focus on being the player he was initially expected to be when the Chicago Blackhawks drafted him with the third overall pick back in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft.

While Dach has had a tough go being that the 2019-20 season was cut off due to COVID-19, and then the 2020-21 season was stunted to 56 games due to the pandemic. His development path had to suffer a bit. While he’s not alone in this situation, with a crop of other players from the 2019 and 2020 drafts having the start of their careers shifted due to the pandemic, it was some adversity that had to have made it tougher.

But the 21-year-old forward has a new home with the Habs. He should be looking to embrace that and get off on the right foot this year. There’s no better way to accomplish that than going out and finding ways to score, even on a rebuilding team.

Dach’s fresh off a year where he posted career bests in a 70-game performance where he scored nine goals and added 17 assists for 26 total points. While there should be a lot of hope that Dach can surpass this and hopefully double it, and honestly, it may not happen in 2022-23.

The thing benefitting him is that he’s likely going to spend time on the power-play unit. There should be an expectation that Dach is able to pick up some offense there, being able to help out on power plays.

There should be a real feeling that the Habs can expect offense out of Dach. Even in a rebuild and a season where offense may be tougher to come by, expect Dach to get things done. Expect him to start showing glimpses of the players the Habs are investing in him to be.