Similar to Last Word On Sports’ Meet a New Canuck, a feature from Ken Hill (@LWOSPuckHead) and Markus Meyer (@Markus_Meyer27), Meet a New Hab offers a look into the newest additions of the Montreal Canadiens and offer insight on the impact they could have with their new team.
Name: Zack Kassian
Position: Forward
Contract: One year, $1.75 Million AAV
Kassian was expected to play a pivotal role in Vancouver. Coming over in a trade from Buffalo just a few years ago, the 13th overall pick from the 2009 draft had all the tools to strive in today’s NHL. His size, strength and skill-set had all the makings for a power-forward, but after three head coaches and two general managers, big Kass was dealt to the Montreal Canadiens.
Montreal continues to shed the played-out narrative of being a small team by re-enforcing the depth on the wing with big, gritty forwards that have the potential to add some secondary scoring. Last season, it came in the form of Devante Smith-Pelly in exchange for Jiri Sekac.
While the belief is that Kassian never got it going under a few different regimes in Vancouver, the history shows that he was never given much of a chance to thrive. He played a small sample size on the top line with Daniel and Henrik Sedin, putting up strong numbers and not looking out of place. However, he was swiftly bumped down the line-up and expected to play in a grinding role, told to use his size and grit. While Kassian does have size, and can lay a hit, his stick-handling abilities and hockey IQ were never taken advantage of. Instead, they were passed over in favor of the expectation that he would be more of a third-line energy player.
Having been limited to just 42 games last season, due to injury and suspension, Kassian never got much of a chance to take off, but in half a season he managed 10 goals with a shooting percentage of 18.2%. His possession stats were average, which would explain why his ice-time has been reduced in the last two years. Every coach he has played under has expected the defensive side of his game to improve and when it didn’t he went from playing 13:29 to 12:37 per game. While not a huge loss, it was a steady drop nonetheless.
His most frequent linemates were Shawn Matthias and Brad Richardson. What’s important to point out is that despite being an average-at-best player in regards to possession stats, he did make both Richardson and Matthias better players in their CF%. When taken off their line, their CF% dropped well below the median, while Kassian remained steady and in some categories he actually improved.
The season prior, Kassian had hit career-highs in every offensive stat, including goals (14) and points (29). Of his goal production, just one came on the powerplay while the rest were scored at even strength. The same thing occurred while playing with Brad Richardson and David Booth. While his possession numbers took a bit of a drop when playing without Richardson, they were still better than Richardson’s and they managed to improve when playing off Booth’s line.
Heading over to Montreal, he’ll be in tough competition when it comes to cracking the top-six. The first two lines are often staffed by players like David Desharnais, Max Pacioretty, Tomas Plekanec, Brendan Gallagher and Alex Galchenyuk. With the recent addition of Alexander Semin, Kassian may find himself playing on a line with center Lars Eller. The one thing he has going for him over most of the players mentioned above is his combination of size and grit along with the soft hands and good vision.
Considering the fact that he is also coming over to a new team in a trade that included a 5th-round draft pick for aging-but-respected Brandon Prust, it’s evident Marc Bergevin won the trade. Prust had the admiration of the entire locker room and played with his heart on his sleeve, but his injury-plagued time in Montreal had put a damper on his ability to keep up and his role was quickly reduced. Given age, limited skill-set and the pains of dealing with all of his bumps and bruises, landing a younger, cheaper player with the same outlook but higher potential was a deal worth making.
With this deal having gone down, it’s becoming more and more clear what Bergevin and Michel Therrien are trying to accomplish with the Canadiens. Moving away from an undersized team that had the skill and motivation but were pushed around too easily to a team that can battle every night, the Montreal Canadiens are on the right path to achieving their goal. If Kassian can put it together on a line with Eller and potentially someone like Smith-Pelly, who can play a similar role, the Canadiens could finally have a third line that exposes the opposition’s weaker players.
Most importantly, Kassian himself is glad to be a member of the Canadiens. You can have all the skill in the world and hit like a truck, but you can’t teach passion.
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