A Winning Habit
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Montreal Canadiens: Positional Grades – Defensemen

By Ryan Praught

MONTREAL, CANADA - DECEMBER 10: Kaiden Guhle #21 of the Montreal Canadiens stands up at the bench during the third period against the Los Angeles Kings at Centre Bell on December 10, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Los Angeles Kings defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)
MONTREAL, CANADA - DECEMBER 10: Kaiden Guhle #21 of the Montreal Canadiens stands up at the bench during the third period against the Los Angeles Kings at Centre Bell on December 10, 2022 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Los Angeles Kings defeated the Montreal Canadiens 4-2. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /
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With the season over, here at A Winning Habit, we’re continuing to wrap up our coverage of the Montreal Canadiens 2022-23 season before setting our sights on what’s ahead. That includes taking a deeper look at the performances of each position. We’ve already looked at the goaltenders, which you can read about here, and today we’ll be discussing the defenseman.

In the goaltenders article, we discussed each individual goalie, but due to the much larger amount of players we have to discuss, we won’t be doing that for both forward and defensemen. So instead, we’ll focus on the position as a whole, highlight some key contributors, and discuss players who could be better next year.

Justin Barron, Montreal Canadiens
MONTREAL, CANADA – APRIL 13: Justin Barron #52 of the Montreal Canadiens celebrates his goal with teammates Joel Armia #40 and Frederic Allard #82 on the bench during the third period against the Boston Bruins at Centre Bell on April 13, 2023 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The Boston Bruins defeated the Montreal Canadiens 5-4. (Photo by Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images) /

The Canadiens had about as inexperienced of a blueline as you could imagine, with five rookies playing significant time this season, including four on opening night. So to say that little should have been expected from this unit this year would be an understatement. And yet, this unit was… not terrible. It wasn’t elite by any stretch, nor is it where it needs to be, but all things considered, I would say that it lived up to expectations, and that definitely matters when trying to grade this unit.

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