During the 2017 off season, the Montreal Canadiens traded for and signed Jonathan Drouin to a six-year, $33 million contract and were expecting him to be the missing piece they needed. This season has not gone the way the Canadiens or Drouin hoped. The Canadiens currently sit in fifth place in the Atlantic and 13th in the East with their playoff dreams crushed. In his first year with Montreal, Drouin has only put up 11 goals and 26 assists in 67 games.
Jonathan Drouin Struggling In First Season With Canadiens
A Key Figure
During Drouin’s first full year with the Tampa Bay Lightning, he had 21 goals and 32 assists for 53 points in 73 games. He came in second in scoring for the Lightning and third in points. The other big scorer on the roster, who stayed healthy, was Nikita Kucherov, who had a 40 goal season. With so many injuries in Tampa, Drouin was given a bigger role in Tampa. He also had something to prove after being suspended in January of 2016 after refusing to report to the Syracuse Crunch after being sent down.
In Montreal, Drouin joined a number of goal scorers including Alex Galchenyuk, Max Pacioretty, and Paul Byron. Having these other key pieces on the roster takes some of the pressure off of a player like Drouin. He should be scoring more than 11 goals a year, but with a team like the Canadiens, he does not have to be a 30 goal scorer to be productive.
Next Season Could Be A Bounce Back
The Montreal Canadiens have a number of decisions to make this off-season and one decision that could affect Drouin is if the Canadiens decide to trade Pacioretty. Moving Pacioretty would easily make Drouin a first line winger on the Canadiens. Even if he were to move up to the first line, he wouldn’t have to carry the team when he can look to guys like Shea Weber and Galchenyuk to score.
Move Drouin To Center?
One of the things Montreal loves to do with young players is seeing if they can move from a winger to a centre. Montreal tried this last year with Galchenyuk and this year they are trying it with Drouin. In 23 games last season at centre, Galchenyuk had nine goals and 13 assists. This year Drouin has 18 points in 34 games at centre. From these stats, you can tell that Drouin is better off playing on the wing instead of in the middle. What Montreal should try doing is playing Galchenyuk at centre with Drouin on the same line. The last true number one centre the Habs had was Saku Koivu back in 2004.
Was Jonathan Drouin Worth the Price?
So with the regular season coming to an end, a lot of people are wondering if Drouin was worth the price they paid to get him. Montreal gave up one of their top young defensive prospects in Mikhail Sergachev, who has eight goals and 26 assists for 34 points in 70 games for the Lightning.
Both players have a good amount of talent, but Montreal has a decent amount of defensive prospects still in their system. They also needed more scoring up front after losing Alexander Radulov in the off-season to the Dallas Stars. Drouin was worth the price, they just hope that he can produce more in the seasons to come in Montreal.
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