We already have a player with the skill of Galchenyuk and the will of Gallagher. It's Alex Radulov.
When the Habs play like they did tonight, Chucky just looks like he has no role out there.
What exactly is his role right now? Where does he fit? Is he a powerplay specialist who needs sheltered mins? Surely, that can't be his ceiling.
When Galchenyuk was first drafted, he was a past first offensive creating center and a damn good one.
Therrien in his wisdom decided he was going to change that, and moved him to the wing and hammered into his head he needed to shoot more and pass less. That he needed to stop driving the net and shoot more from the perimeter. He spent most of the first couple of years trying to "break" Galchenyuk of these "bad habits".
After three years, he decided he was going to try to change him back to what he was in junior, but never....ever...gave him a goal scoring winger to finish the plays he was creating. He reduced his minutes, played him behind other centers, consistently moved people over him.
Why...things like face off percentage? Have you seen McDavid's percentage? (Spoiler: He and Galchenyuki both are at 43%)
It's called growing pains, and you get better by repetition. It's something they should have lived through a couple of years ago. Instead, we draft a thoroughbred and that idiot Therrien tries to train him like a harness racing horse and them penalizes him when he starts playing like one.
It's no wonder Galchenyuk's confidence is absolutely shot. Julien's job is to try to rebuild that, in a short time, while not hurting the team. Where they have him now is fine with me, and if he gets hot...look out.
So now we have this confused kid trying to finish plays, but not playing with players who can create offensive. People forget how good Galchenyuk looks playing with Max at the end of last year, or Radulov earlier this year. With legitimate, offensive top 6 forwards Galchenyuk is fine.
In the best of worlds, Julien gets him not only playing like a goal scoring finisher, but also being a pass first offensive creating player when needed when the shot isn't there. If he can get him to do that, Galchenyuk will become a superstar. To me, that's his ceiling. He has the skills to do both, but his problem right now is between his ears and with his confidence.
If "all" he becomes is a 20-30 goal scored, that's fine. But he has the potential to become so much more than that. And seeing what Julien has done with Lucic and Marchand I'm confident he can turn Galchenyuk around.
The question now is when, and will Bergevin actually wait or has he already made his mind up on him.