Montreal Canadiens: Analytics Can’t Save Jonathan Drouin Anymore
By Scott Cowan
Advanced Metrics Are a Poor Way of Judging a Players Talent
Naturally, the same old argument will be thrown my way regarding Drouin, that under the bright, ever-so-forgiven lights of advanced metrics, he’s actually a really good and effective player, but to that I’ll say one thing.
Florida Panthers GM Dale Tallon exposed Jonathan Marchessault in the 2017 Expansion Draft because he had bad advanced metric stats, in spite of potting 30 goals and 50 points and being one of the few offensively consistent players on the team.
The Vegas Golden Knights wound up claiming him as compensation for not taking Vincent Trocheck, and the rest is well… the rest, including Marchessault earning the Conn Smythe last season, defeating those very same Panthers in the Stanley Cup Final.
Point being, all I see with Drouin is one thing. 16 games, with 2 goal, 3 assists, and a -1 rating, all the while with Drouin receiving power-play and occasional top-six minutes.
Despite this, head coach Jared Bednar continues to see the good in the now 28-year old winger/once-center, and while his past few games have demonstrated the ability Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin once saw in Drouin, to say its automatically a sign he has returned is nothing but a fools hope.
Even when it became clear those goods were not only damaged but entirely shattered, Bergevin persisted in his pressuring of Drouin, something as much a product of the Montreal fanbase as it was Drouin himself unfortunately. However, before we delve too much into the present, let’s look a bit on how we got here to begin with.