If you’re someone who likes looking deep into a team’s history, this is an article you’ll want to read because many of the Canadiens all-time single-season points-per-game leaders played this game at least a century ago.
And if it wasn’t for some of these epic players, who knows what the Habs franchise would look like today? It also links them to brewing greats like Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovksy, just to name a few.
Further, the most recent player mentioned in this top 10 list is Guy Lafleur, whose 1979-80 campaign factored in as the most recent. That said, nobody has broken into the top 10 points-per-game mark over the last four-and-a-half decades.
Aurele Joliat, 1924-25
Standing at just 5’7 and 136 pounds, Aurele Joliat’s lack of size didn’t stop him from being one of the best hockey players of the day. The Hall of Famer won the Stanley Cup three times, was named to four NHL All-Star teams, and even snagged the Hart in 1933-34.
But we need to go all the way back to 1924-25 for his best year from a points-per-game standpoint, in which Joliat finished the season with 42 in 25 games, good for 1.68 per. Even more interesting is the fact that Joliat scored 30 goals that year, so not only did he eclipse the point-per-game mark, he did the same in goals per game.
Guy Lafleur, 1979-80, 1977-78, 1976-77, 1974-75
An epic player who spent all but three seasons with the Habs, Guy Lafleur’s run between 1974-75 to 1979-80 was one of the finest in team, and league, history. While we elaborated on this more in another article, we didn’t say much about what he did from a points-per-game mark. The most modest of which came in 1977-78 and 1979-80, when he snagged 1.69 per contest.
In 1976-77, Lafleur enjoyed an even better result, as his 136 points in 80 games left him with 1.7 points per. Of these 136 points, 80 were assists, meaning he averaged one assist in each game he played that season. Lafleur’s 1974-75 season also saw him hit the 1.7 per game mark with 119 in just 70 matchups that year.
Newsy Lalonde, 1920-21, 1918-19, 1919-20, 1917-18
Newsy Lalonde was a dual-sport athlete, having spent a lot of time on the lacrosse field, but at age 30, he found himself playing professional hockey for the Canadiens. And he took the league by storm in 1917-18, with 30 points in 14 games, good for 2.14 per contest.
Lalonde saw the ice for 17 games in 1918-19, but his 32 points gave him 1.88 per contest. Things got even better in 1919-20, when he finished the year with 47 points in 23 outings, once again eclipsing the 2.0 points per game mark at 2.04 per.
In 1920-21, Lalonde put up 43 in 24 contests, giving him 1.79 per game on the season. Overall, he played in just 98 games for the Habs, but his career 167 points gave him, overall, 1.70 per game.
Joe Malone, 1917-18
Joe Malone put up over 2.0 points per game multiple times in his NHL career, and he accomplished the feat once with the Canadiens. It occurred in the 1917-18 season when he put up 48 points in 20 games, good for 2.4 per contest. Of those 48 points, 44 of them were goals, which led the league.
Malone eclipsed the 2.0 barrier again in 1919-20 while with the Quebec Bulldogs, accumulating 49 points in 24 games, once again leading the league in points and in goals (39). With those numbers in mind, there’s no wonder Malone’s pro hockey career ended in the Hockey Hall of Fame.
(Statistics powered by Hockey-Reference)