Who is Canadiens' best forward (offensively) this year?

[Toene]

Hi Hf Habs. It's the first time I post a thread on this board let alone a poll and it happens to be about a debate I had with my brother and a friend yesterday night.

We were watching the game and my friend who is a huge Galchenyuk fan joined my brother who is a passionate Pacioretty hater in a discussion about which is better offensively. While the answer is without a doubt MaxPac when you consider preceding years, the debate was about this particular year and the answer gets indecisive IMO.

On their part, they were arguing that AG as few less points than Pacioretty while playing way less minutes. They also mentioned the fact 67 had a bunch of empty-net goals. They then said he was prone to some long disappearing acts during a season. On this particular point I agreed with them.

Now on my part, I was pointing the fact that indeed, Patches plays more a game, but also plays on the penalty kill because he is better defensively which adds on his total TOI. Also, I argued while Galchenyuk plays less, also plays against weaker competition and usually has very high offensive faceoffs %, higher than Pacioretty, so we can say that he's more sheltered. In my mind, I believed that the advantage in ice time for MaxPac was pretty much evened out when you consider the more difficult matchups. Plus, I happen to value goal-scoring more than total points, and in both categories, MaxPac is superior this year.

Now I'm not a statistical expert and while I understand stats and advanced stats, I'm not the best at cumulating and analyzing them. Because I believe a lot of members on here are way much knowledgeable on hockey and stats, I ask you what you really think. It is also very possible that the answer is neither of them, but let's say Brendan Gallagher or Tomas Plekanec.

Click to read more...

 

[sandviper]

Consider Gallagher. He's played 17 fewer games than Patches yet has 16 goals. This averages to 0.36 goals per game. Patches is 21 goals which works out to 0.34. Gally's PPG is also higher. I'm just going by raw numbers and didn't bother comparing even strength, power play, second assists, etc.

Now, I won't deny who is the more dangerous shooter but for the sake of stats, Gally is more productive.

 

[ProspectsFanatic]

The offense was anemic when Gally wasn't in the lineup. For this season and probably just this season, I would say Gally. He has the best ppg, +/- and SAT on the team also.

 

[PaulD]

Gallagher has been the best since the opening round of the play offs last season. Not even close.

 

[The Great Weal]

Who voted for Desharnais?

 

[Toene]

To people who vote Galchenyuk : What is your reasoning since the only category where Galch is better than MaxPac is A/60 ? Even when you adjust by 60 minutes, Max dominates him in pretty much everything. Now I understand voting for Gallagher, but Galchenyuk? Last-game effect much? Please explain.

 

[Genesis76]

Who voted for Desharnais?

Michel Therrien.
David Desharnais
or Marc Bergevin

 

[jaffy27]

To people who vote Galchenyuk : What is your reasoning since the only category where Galch is better than MaxPac is A/60 ? Even when you adjust by 60 minutes, Max dominates him in pretty much everything. Now I understand voting for Gallagher, but Galchenyuk? Last-game effect much? Please explain.

Second wave of PP, AHL linemates for prolonged periods of time, Semin as linemate, Eller the centre as a linemate, raw deal with Therrien, bottom tier when it comes to ice time, Pacioretty has many empty net goals......need I say more

 

[the]

The NHL app said Plekanec with 44 points so my vote goes to Plekanec.

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

where can we find the empty net stats?

Im guessing Plekanec and Pacioretty have had quite a few more free pts than Galchenyuk.

 

[SnapVirus]

Second wave of PP, AHL linemates for prolonged periods of time, Semin as linemate, Eller the centre as a linemate, raw deal with Therrien, bottom tier when it comes to ice time, Pacioretty has many empty net goals......need I say more

This. Thats why I voted too.

 

[Nicko999]

Gallagher

 

[Cole Caulifield]

lol at no one voting Pacioretty... rightfully so

There's little doubt Gallagher is our best forward "this year".

 

[Toene]

Second wave of PP, AHL linemates for prolonged periods of time, Semin as linemate, Eller the centre as a linemate, raw deal with Therrien, bottom tier when it comes to ice time, Pacioretty has many empty net goals......need I say more

1. Second wave of PP : fair point
2. AHL linemates, Semin : Well, Semin was there for what a quarter of the season? And it is not like Andrighetto and Carr were bad during the december-january stretch of lost, in fact they were some of our best forwards most nights.
3. Eller : Pacioretty seemed to produce with Eller when paired with him, although it's true Eller plays better at center
4. Therrien : Cannot comment on speculated feud between them since I don't know about it but maybe you are right.
5. Ice-time : i adressed this point in the OP, Pacioretty faces tougher opposition and has lesser % of offensive zone face-offs, he kills penalties.
6. Empty-net goals : Why don't Gallagher, Plekanec, Markov, Subban, etc. have more empty-net goals if it's that easy to score them? I think empty-net goals are almost as legit and important since it secures the win and are scored from a play that started in the defensive zone, while you are short-handed in term of skaters.

Also, 67 has the most GWGs (worth noting IMO) this season and it's that way since a few years.

I don't think you are wrong but I also would say it is VERY close.

My point is that yeah, Galchenyuk would probably score more if he had the same ice-time and opportunity as MaxPac (even if it is indeed tougher ice-time), but what if they played together which would occur in this case? Max would also benefit of a better line-mate on his line, a guy that can pass and score, so maybe his own total would be higher than now and the difference would be pretty much the same? His assist total would certainly increase, and since he can score with pretty much any line-mate (see Gomez, Desharnais, slumping Plek, Eller), his goal-scoring would remain the same at worst if not slightly increase. Just speculating at this point, but what do you think? Fair points by the way.

 

[zzoo]

It seems there's no correct answer, whatever I pick is wrong

 

[Tyson]

Gallagher is the best player currently but Galchenyuk's upside is much higher

 

[bobhabs46]

Galchenyuk, by far.

 

[Smokey Thompson]

Good poll, surprised to see Patch so low. Voted Galchenyuk because he's probably the only Hab who can create scoring chances on his own at such a high rate.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Despite a slow start, Galchenyuk has been our best forward this year. Since late November he's been really good. And he's been good despite being jerked around in the lineup.

 

[NobleSix]

Id much rather trade Phantomretty than either of Galchenyuk or Gallagher.

To people who vote Galchenyuk : What is your reasoning since the only category where Galch is better than MaxPac is A/60 ? Even when you adjust by 60 minutes, Max dominates him in pretty much everything. Now I understand voting for Gallagher, but Galchenyuk? Last-game effect much? Please explain.

Could be the fact that he only has 6 less points than apparitionretty despite getting about 4 minutes less of ice time per night and much less PP and empty net opportunities.

 

[Habs10Habs]

I went with Gallagher, with Galchenyuk a close 2nd.

 

[Deluded Puck]

Galchenyuk since he's the only one consistently creating his own shots.

Gallagher would be ahead had he been healthy the whole time though.

 

[sandviper]

I will state Patches has been clutch at times this year, and he's had to face tougher line match ups than Chuck. However, as arguably our highest paid offensive player and team captain, the role dictates this is how it has to be. That said, I think Galchenyuk is more gifted offensively. He doesn't have Patches' straight away speed, but he has more tools in my opinion.

That said, Gallagher still gets my vote because he's matched up against top players, gets in the dirty areas and still creates offense. He's still suspect defensively in my opinion, though not the worst on the team by any stretch. It's easy to think anyone can crash the net and bang in garbage goals, but if so, why is it nobody else on the team can do it? Couple this with his small stature, he deserves this recognition.

I know the OP states goals are the main criteria and I agree, goals are very important, but to open this up, the offensive star to me is Subban. He quarterbacks the team, and many goals that start from the defensive zone is started by him. I know he had a rough stretch of no goals, but take him away this year and I would not think it to be bold to state guys like Patches, Chuck and even Gally would have 5-10 fewer points.

 

[Mrb1p]

Gallagher for sure.

Plek a close 2nd.

Rest is ****.

 

[Bourne Endeavor]

Galchenyuk and Gallagher are my 1A/1B choices. The rest have been varying levels of garbage.

Now excuse me while I talk about Dale Weise instead.