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David Desharnais

Canadiens Notes: Nesterov, Pateryn, Desharnais, Markov

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Just before the All-Star break, the Montreal Canadiens pulled off a trade to add needed defensive depth, acquiring Nikita Nesterov for a prospect and late draft choice in 2017. It won’t take long for the team to see what they have in the 23-year-old blue liner as it appears as if he is set to make his Habs debut tomorrow night, tweets Amanda Stein of TSN 690. His new teammate, Andrei Markov, offered a brief scouting report (H/T to the Candiens Twitter account) on Nesterov, saying the latter will be a good fit for the Canadiens and calling him a good skater with a good first pass.

Nesterov contributed 12 points in 35 games for Tampa and recorded solid possession numbers, with the Lighting controlling better than 54% of the shot attempts while he was on the ice. Given his usage – he averaged just 16:35 a night mostly as a third-pair defender – those numbers look even better. If Markov is right, the Canadiens may have added a solid depth piece on the cheap.

In other Canadiens-related news:

  • TSN’s John Lu, via Twitter, updates the injury situations of David Desharnais and Markov. Habs bench boss Michel Therrien indicated both players will be evaluated Tuesday but “both look good” as it pertains to returning to the lineup. Stein adds in another tweet that Therrien wants to sit down with each before making a decision on their availability.
  • Therrien also says Greg Pateryn, who has been out since early December with a fractured ankle, needs more time according to yet an another tweet from Stein. Pateryn’s pending return, with the assumption that Markov will be back this week, creates a bit of a log jam on the blue line and that may well have played a role in the team placing Zach Redmond on waivers earlier today. Even without Redmond the Habs will have eight healthy defensemen for six regular spots.

Atlantic Division Notes: Danault, Kennedy, Stamkos

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Injuries to Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais have forced the Montreal Canadiens to shuffle their forward lines around as they try to survive without two of their top offensive players. The loss of Galchenyuk was particularly difficult as the fifth-year pivot was averaging nearly a point-per game (23 points in 25 games) as the team’s top center but the play of Phillip Danault has helped offset Galchenyuk’s absence of late, writes Stu Cowan of the Montreal Gazette.

With a scoring line of 6 – 6 – 14 through 34 contests, Danault has already bested last season’s totals (4 – 6 – 10) in 17 fewer games. In his last eight games, the 23-year-old center has tallied one goal and five points. As Cowan notes, Danault posted solid offensive numbers during his junior career, potting 18 goals and 71 points in 62 contests in his final junior season with Victoriaville, suggesting his recent rate of production for Montreal is sustainable.

Danault was originally drafted in the first-round of the 2011 draft by Chicago when current Habs GM Marc Bergevin was a member of the Blackhawks front office. Bergevin was able to acquire Danault at last season’s trade deadline as part of the deal that sent rental players Dale Weise and Tomas Fleischmann to the Hawks. Known as a strong two-way player in juniors, Danault is taking advantage of increased ice time of late to show the Canadiens what he can do at the NHL level.

Elsewhere in the Atlantic Division:

  • Tim Kennedy hasn’t appeared in an NHL game in three years and despite a recent return to the organization with whom he made his NHL debut, it’s not likely that the veteran winger will make much of an impact for the Buffalo Sabres this year either. As John Vogl of The Buffalo News writes, Kennedy was signed by the club to add some offense and to serve as a mentor for the team’s prospects playing for the Rochester Americans in the AHL. Since suiting up for 37 games with the Coyotes during the 2013-14 campaign, Kennedy has made appearances for four different franchises in four different countries, including stops in the KHL, Swedish League and a 75-game stint with Hershey of the AHL in 2013-14. The piece provides an interesting insight into the life of a career minor-league player and his travels around the world in professional hockey.
  • With the Tampa Bay Lightning struggling on the ice and in the standings, a return of franchise center Steven Stamkos could be just the spark the team needs to make a playoff push. Unfortunately, while Stamkos is progressing just fine after surgery to repair a torn meniscus, he is still looking at a mid-March return, as Joe Smith of the Tampa Bay Times reports. Stamkos is still on crutches and is a month or two away from even putting on skates. The 26-year-old pivot was off to a strong start, with nine goals and 20 points in 17 contests before the injury but if Tampa Bay is going to make a postseason run, it looks like it’s going to have to come without the assistance of Stamkos.

Snapshots: Uncertainty in Dallas, Hanzal

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The Dallas Stars are in a precarious position due to a number of factors writes Mike Heika. Besieged by injury, and seemingly in some form of hockey purgatory, Heika begins his column with prose:

The Stars are neither fish nor fowl.

They are not fast, yet they are not slow.

They are not young, yet they are not old.

They are not tough, yet they are not weak.

The Stars have been an enigma this season, expected to build on last year’s successes while bringing along a lot of the young, speedy talent that seemed ready to carry the team. Instead, Heika writes that the injuries to Mattias Janmark and Ales Hemsky altered the plan to include bigger, and albeit slower, forwards. Additionally, a more veteran blue line gave way for youth, which includes a learning curve as it acclimates to NHL talent.

Heika adds that with the uncertainty of the youth delivering, comes the unknowns associated with the 2017 offseason where a number of unrestricted free agents are set to be re-signed or hit the market. Those names include Patrick Sharp, Patrick Eaves, Jiri Hudler, Johnny Oduya, Adam Cracknell and Hemsky. Throw in what many analysts observe as a “shaky” goaltending tandem in Antti Niemi and Kari Lehtonen, and Heika indicates there’s yet another aspect of the team that may see change. Finally, head coach Lindy Ruff is in the final year of his contract.

What does it all mean? The Stars are a team in “no man’s land” according to Heika. Ruff put the team through a tough practice and indicated that the way through the inconsistency was to keep working. Heika is convinced it’s the one way that Dallas can determine what they’re truly made of.

In other Western Conference news:

  • Montreal needs help up front and Arizona’s Martin Hanzal may be just the the man to solve their problems writes Navin Vaswani. The 29-year-old could be had for a young NHL ready forward and Vaswani believes Phillip Danault could do the trick. But Vaswani adds that Marc Bergevin isn’t forced to make a trade at all. Pierre LeBrun tweets that he isn’t sure if the Habs’ interest in Hanzal has spiked since the injuries to Alex Galchenyuk and David Desharnais.  What he does indicate, is that regardless of what decision they make, injuries are part of the game and the Habs–whether they make a deal or not–must find a way to survive the injuries. LeBrun also adds that Arizona may still make a run at re-signing Hanzal.

Alex Galchenyuk And David Desharnais Both Expected Out 6 To 8 Weeks

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Bad news for the Montreal Canadiens as not one but two of their top forwards will be out long-term. Going into last night’s game, a loss to the St. Louis Blues, Montreal had made it known that Alex Galchenyuk would be out “indefinitely” with an undisclosed lower-body injury. However, David Desharnais was injured late in the game as well and did not return. In a short press release tonight, the Canadiens announced that, after inspection by team doctors, both players have been diagnosed with knee injuries expected to keep them out of action for up to two months. No more information has yet been released as to the type or extent of either injury.

Just like that, the Canadiens are reeling. After a historically strong start yet again this season, injuries are slowing Montreal down for the second year in a row. Last season, the loss of all-world goalie Carey Price knocked the Habs out the playoff picture much quicker than anyone thought. Now, they’ll have to deal with their top two centers both out during the middle months of the season With a 4-4-2 record in their last ten games, Montreal’s play had already regressed and that was with Galchenyuk and Desharnais healthy. Can they survive this blow or will it be 2015-16 all over again?

Galchenyuk was on pace for a career year, after the Canadiens handed him the reins as the top line center this season. After a strong campaign last year with 56 points, his first 30-goal season, and a clean bill of health with 82 games played, Galchenyuk was ready to better those marks in 2016-17. The 22-year-old was on nearly a point-per-game pace, with 23 points in 25 games. Desharnais, on the other hand, has gotten off to a much slower start to the new season with just nine points in 25 games. However, since fighting his way up from the ECHL and establishing himself as a star with his 60 point season in 2011-12, Desharnais has been a consistent and productive force for the Canadiens.

The loss of two starting centers at once would cripple any team, but Montreal’s situation is made worse by the apparent cliff dive that long-time center Tomas Plekanec’s career has taken this season. A perennial leader for the Habs, Plekanac has been relied on as a top scorer in Montreal every year since 2005-06. Now 34 years old, that production has dried up for the Czech pivot. Plekanac has just two goals and seven assists in 26 games and has been relegated to third line duty with his least amount of ice time per game in over a decade. Many have speculated that Montreal may even consider leaving Plekanac exposed in the upcoming NHL Expansion Draft, in hopes that the Vegas Golden Knights would take the final $6MM year of his contract off of their hands. Instead, this is now the player that the Canadiens will have to lean on for the next six to eight weeks to keep them afloat. Other options down the middle include veteran Torrey Mitchell, youngsters Phillip Danault and Michael McCarron, or a shift off of the wing for a player like Andrew Shaw, Paul Byron, or Brian Flynn. For now, the Canadiens have recalled forward Sven Andrighetto from St. John’s of the AHL to fill a hole up front. Expect more moves in the coming days, including a possible trade for a player like Martin Hanzal or Patrik Berglund. 

Montreal’s rivals in the Atlantic Division are celebrating tonight, as it will be a difficult task for this team to keep up their championship-caliber appearance without Galchenyuk and Desharnais. Galchenyuk is likely second only to Max Pacioretty as far the team’s most valuable forward, and while several others are better than Desharnais, shorthanding any one position like this makes his loss sting more than most others. Without their two top centers until possibly February, the Canadiens are in a tough spot. The prognosis on either injury could have been worse, but this is still somewhat of a nightmare scenario in Montreal.

[Related: Montreal Canadiens Depth Chart]

Canadiens To Scratch David Desharnais

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The Canadiens may have won two in a row since their 10-0 blowout loss, but they’re still making lineup changes.

Coach Michel Therrien confirmed that center David Desharnais will be among the scratches for Thursday night’s game versus the Los Angeles Kings. Greg Pateryn will also be up in the press box while Sven Andrighetto and Joel Hanley draw in.

While the other three men have all missed time as healthy scratches, this is the first time Desharnais has found himself healthy scratched in a while. He’s in the final year of a four-year, $14MM contract. The 5’7, 171 lbs center has bounced around the lineup since the Canadiens moved Alex Galchenyuk to center last season.

The 30-year-old Desharnais has just four points in 13 games so far this season. His point totals have been up and down since coming into the NHL, scoring 22, 60, 28, 52, 48, and 29 points.

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