In 1994, Vincent Damphousse scored his 40th goal for the Montreal Canadiens, the first and only time he’d do so in his NHL career. While scoring 40 goals is an impressive feat, it really isn’t that rare. I say this not to diminish Damphousse’s accomplishment but to shed light on how common scoring 40 goals is, just in the Canadiens organization alone. When Damphousse notched his 40th goal, it became the 35th such instance in Canadiens history to do so. In the 29 years since, there are still only 35 seasons in which a Canadien hit the 40-goal mark.
With the Canadiens’ regular season concluding yesterday, we can now officially say that the goal-scoring drought has reached 29 dubious years, with 30 looming in the foreground. Of course, it is worth mentioning that Cole Caufield was on a 46-goal pace before he went down with season-ending surgery. Still, it’s disappointing to not see a single 40-goal scorer in that time, a drought that ranks dead last in the league. Even the Seattle Kraken, who just completed their second-ever season, have had a 40-goal scorer in that time.
Here is a list of every NHL Teams most recent 40 and 50 goal scorer and 82 and 100 point scorer.
— Ryan Praught (@RyanPraught) April 12, 2023
The red indicates the team with the longest drought in each category. The Habs are at or near the bottom in every category. pic.twitter.com/EqQHT0XQVO
The Los Angeles Kings also had a 29-year drought as well, but at least have two Stanley Cups to soften that blow and Adrian Kempe just hit 40 this year, ending that. The problem for the Canadiens is that the deficiency doesn’t just end at 40-goal scorers. It extends to other areas of offense as well. The Canadiens are also tied with the Red Wings for the most prolonged period without a player reaching the 82-point plateau, with the last Canadien doing so in 2007-08 when Alex Kovalev hit 84. The offense has been tough to come by for quite some time in Montreal, and that desperately needs to change.
The good news for the Canadiens is that there are already players on the roster capable of breaking some of these droughts. As mentioned already, Cole Caufield was on pace to hit 40 before he went down with an injury, and you’d like to think it’s only a matter of time before the forward reaches 40. And I wouldn’t even rule out 50 for him. And I believe Nick Suzuki could reach the 82-point plateau at some point in his career. But the Canadiens need more talent, with this year’s NHL Entry Draft being a fantastic opportunity to do so.
This isn’t just about point totals; there’s more nuance to it than that. Looking at the chart above, you’ll see years marked beside each name. Those years were obviously when those feats occurred, and the grand majority of them tend to coincide with team success. Take the New Jersey Devils, for instance, who have never had a 100-point guy or a 50-goal scorer. Jack Hughes just had the best offensive season in Franchise history, with 99 points and over 40 goals. It’s not a coincidence the Devils also just had their best regular season in Franchise history.
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The Canadiens have had one of the worst power plays in the NHL for a while now, going back several years, and they’ve been amongst the league’s worst in terms of offensive output. It’s obviously easier said than done to acquire elite-level talent, but every single team in the NHL has done so more recently than the Canadiens. It’s about time they catch up. They’ve already done a decent job with the likes of Cole Caufield, Nick Suzuki, and Kirby Dach. Hopefully, prospects like Juraj Slafkovsky and Lane Hutson will take that a step further. But the real crown jewel is their pick in this year’s NHL Entry Draft. It’s currently sitting at 5th overall, with just the lottery left to decide things. They can’t miss with that pick.